Pendulum's Fall
by Disgruntled Cola
Summary: Friendships are tested when a malicious prank goes horribly awry leaving Wheeljack and others betrayed.  Loyalties are tested, and Allison learns the real meaning of the word Autobot when the Decepticon's play their hand. WJ/OC fluff, no pairings or slash
1. Prologue

**Author's Notes:**

**This is a continuation of "The Poet and the Pendulum." If you haven't read it, I'll try not to make too many references, but there will be some. I won't spend a serious amount of time explaining things but there will be nods here and there. If you did read it, in February of this year (2011) I went back and made some major changes. Nothing plot altering, but I'd made a lot of messy mistakes and went in some bad directions, so I wanted to try and rectify what I could.**

**Basic universe stuff: Sort of a mix of G1, Animated and Transformers Prime. This includes an OC, and there will be fluff. Lots of it. I do not do slash, and never will, so please respect that. There is no romance, but I will refer to "Sparkbonds" which are simply meant to be strong paternal relationships, so they aren't pairings. Although, I might make little jokes about flirting and kissing here and there, but they're only jokes. If you did not read "The Poet and the Pendulum" Wheeljack is bonded to my OC Allison. If you're really adverse to relationships with OCs, that's totally cool, but this may not be the story for you then. Part of the edits I had made was I tried to do Allison better justice, because I'd done a lot of silly things with her behavior and put her in idiotic situations that I shouldn't have, so hopefully I've learned from those mistakes. No time to dwell on the past.**

**Comments are certainly welcome, but this is just something I do for fun. I'll keep author's notes to a minimum.**

**Wheeljack: G1 and sort of my own take on him**

**Ratchet: Mix of Prime and Animated**

**Sunstreaker and Sideswipe: G1 but heavily inspired by fan interpretation and a mixture of my own input  
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**Just an intro chapter, which takes place immediately after "The Poet and the Pendulum Ends." I'm not exactly an English composition major, but I do my best. :3 Enjoy!  
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><p>Allison opened her eyes. Immediately a bright white light flooded in, blinding her and forcing her to close them again. She threw up her arms, her hands trying to protect her face from the invasive glare. When her hands didn't connect with anything, she slowly allowed her eyelids to open, gradually getting used to seeing again. Her vision was blurred at first, general shapes gradually coming into focus. Above her she could make out two square beams of light filtering through two small windows. The absence of dust and the stark white interior quickly reminded her of where she was, and she closed her eyes in relief, taking comfort in the fact that she was still alive.<p>

Even in her current state, however, she couldn't help but feel frustrated at the fact she was once again receiving medical attention inside the back of Ratchet. She was aware of the hollow sound her breathing made, and as her senses slowly returned she took note of the clear breathing apparatus placed over her mouth. She fumbled at it with her fingers, feeling the curved shape of it. It felt smooth and was clear, like plastic. She didn't feel alarmed, remembering how sterile Ratchet's interior always looked. While it gave her slight concern for her current condition, opening her eyes was at the very least a good indicator of still being alive. She was grateful for that.

Looking down at her body, she tried to take stock of her limbs. All four seemed to be intact; her fingers clenched when she tried to make a fist, and she could bend her legs, though they felt a little stiff. The skin on her hands felt dry, as did her mouth. Her head swam for a moment but passed quickly.

After she waited to make sure her breathing was fine, she pulled the oxygen mask from her face slowly, letting it dangle to the side. She took a deep breath of air, making sure she was OK without the aid of the mask, then tried to lift her body. An experiment of will, she wanted to see how far she could muster before crashing back down onto one of the wide medical benches.

_How long have I been asleep? _Her first thought as she looked at the makeshift bed seemed to cause her more worry than the concerns for her physical condition. Had it been mere hours? Or several days? Perhaps longer? She dreaded the thought. Allison couldn't quite remember how long ago she'd fallen asleep, having been in too much of a hazy fog of pain and fatigue before lapsing into unconsciousness to remember. Her internal clock felt like it was all over the place, the only truthful evidence that some time had passed being the horrible sunlight beating down on her from outside the back windows of Ratchet's medical cabin. But the fact that she was still inside Ratchet told her it couldn't have been that long at all. Unless something had happened.

The light from the windows started to cause her eyes to water. Blinking the tears from her hazel eyes, she managed to get her body up to a partial sitting position, testing the stiffness of her back with a subtle twist at her waist. Sharp but bearable lances of pain sliced up and around her back, resonating from between her shoulder blades and from the very depths of her body. It hurt, but was surprisingly manageable. Considering that her back had been blasted by a Seeker's Null Ray, she was grateful to have any use of it at all.

Curious, and wondering how far she could push herself, Allison brought her body to a full sitting position, holding her breath as she moved in anticipation of a burst of searing, mind-numbing pain. It didn't happen… and while her back still felt sore, with the occasional pulse of pain that she could somewhat ignore, she felt more awake and healthy then she had in a long time. Looking back at the oxygen mask now hanging from the bench behind her, she frowned, wondering what exactly Ratchet had her breathing this entire time.

Determined to get some answers, and realizing how incredibly hungry she was as her stomach growled miserably, she slid off the bench and tested her balance. The cabin shook, a reminder that she wasn't actually in a real ambulance but a sentient robot merely masquerading as one. A rumbling voice finally spoke, its words seeming to come from all around her.

"It's about time you woke up."

Ratchet sounded mildly annoyed, which meant that everything was perfectly fine. She could tell from the lack of urgency in his voice and his overwhelming need to make it known just how much of his time they were wasting, that they were out of any immediate danger, at least for now. There was a sense of familiarity to his tone though, an absence of its usual edge that caused her to pause and smile lightly to herself, a tiring endeavor in of itself.

"Good morning to you too," Allison grumbled.

"Afternoon," Ratchet corrected, gruffly. "Can't you tell?"

"I've been asleep, if you haven't noticed." Allison rubbed the back of her neck, turning her head to the side to rid herself of an annoying kink in her muscles. Sometimes she wished she could get rid of Ratchet just as easily, though right now she had to admit she did kind of owe him her life. "By the way, just what _exactly_ was I breathing out of that?" Allison pointed towards the oxygen mask dangling behind her, even though she knew he would know what she was talking about. "And how long was I out exactly?"

"Air and days," Ratchet said shortly.

"Air and days," Allison repeated softly. "Wait... Did you just say..."

"Days, yes. Three, to be exact." Ratchet paused as Allison choked a startled gasp from her throat at that revelation. "Are you done?" He continued, perturbed.

"I feel much better now that I know I've missed out on valuable days of living," she said in wonderment, managing to stand with little effort. She was definitely sore, and her entire body felt like it could easily snap into pieces at any moment. She tried stretching, but that activity proved to be far more exerting than she was prepared for at that moment. If she had been out for days, then she had to have been more critically injured than she'd previously thought.

"If you really must know, you were inhaling a variety of chemicals to ensure that you didn't _die_ on the way to Detroit." Ratchet said with a rough cycling of his internal systems like he was bothered. "Fortunately I had the foresight not long after meeting you to develop such a system in case we needed it. It's crude, untested and I wasn't entirely sure it wouldn't kill you. Unfortunately the circumstances didn't provide more of an option. Had I the luxury of chasing live rats through the city sewers, maybe."

Allison's face tightened, her jaw clenched as she thought of what was possibly running through her veins right that very moment.

"You asked," Ratchet grumbled. "It's only a temporary precaution. I'll need to do a proper diagnosis-"

"That's fine, I get it…" Allison said. She sighed. "Look, _thank you_," she said finally, not wanting to appear ungrateful. Whatever Ratchet had done, it was damn near a miracle. "I guess I owe you one then."

"More than one, but who's counting?" Was the grumbled reply, but there was the hint of laughter in his voice. Allison stifled her own laugh as she stood up slowly, teetering lightly on her feet as her circulation reached some measure of stability. She noticed then her poor, beaten bag sitting on the bench opposite her. Ratchet had even made sure to grab her bag before leaving. Or perhaps Wheeljack had, she couldn't be sure. She hefted it up, wincing slightly as her shoulders ached when she slipped her arms painfully through the straps. She wanted to go outside and investigate where they had ended up, so she limped to the back double doors, where they swung open for her as if on a sensor.

Giving the roof a grateful little pat, she awkwardly climbed out onto the ground below her. The drop jarred her back, sending tingling bursts of pain across her chest and shoulders, but didn't cause nearly as much distress as turning to find oneself nearly devoured by two gigantic, glowing orbs of blue eyes. The owner of said eyes was crouched near the back of Ratchet's cabin, staring at her.

"Wheeljack!" Allison gasped, leaning towards him with her own relief at seeing a familiar face waiting for her. She wrapped her arms around his massive head awkwardly, an impulsive reaction to seeing him after her previous brush with death. He vibrated softly under her fingers, a sign that she had come to interpret as meaning that he was pleased. His face was nearly at her level as he crouched the lowest limit his large, bulky legs would allow, eyes glowing at her like two giant fiery rings of blue. There was an expression of pure exhilaration on his face as his eyes squinted with unhinged joy, completely unapologetic that he'd just nearly toppled her over. She'd had plenty of that already. "You scared me. Why are you hovering around Ratchet like this?"

Allison motioned to the red and white ambulance which took that moment to slide away, exploding into transformation as the vehicle was replaced by a bulky, bipedal Autobot who turned to glower down at them with obviously restrained impatience. Wheeljack glanced at him and his eyes went unfocused and blank for a brief second, signaling the fact that he was talking to Ratchet privately over their internal communication system. It always bugged Allison because it usually meant they were talking about her.

"I hate it when you do that," she mumbled.

"I was waiting for you," Wheeljack said, glancing back at her and clasping his hands together absently. Despite his physical distress, his expression bore nothing but relief, as if a trap-door had been opened with her emergence allowing him to finally relax. Allison had gotten admittedly very good at recognizing his emotions from just his eyes. He was always covered by the wide, silver battle-mask covering his lower face and mouth, hiding the damage of his real face underneath. She'd come to know Wheeljack as a very modest Autobot, and after finally having seen his face after his battle-mask had been ripped off by Starscream, she was disheartened to find his face covered again. She frowned at him.

"So you repaired it," she said solemnly. She'd been so anxious for the chance of seeing his face before that seeing his normal countenance, or what had come to be normal, was actually quite disappointing. It wasn't a secret that he was very shy about the damage on his face, so how it had come to be was a rather sore subject for him. There had been something somewhat sweet and endearing about the shyness of a giant autonomous robot, and she had been careful to be sensitive about it. Now however, his face was covered again, as he'd obviously repaired his mask while she'd been out. After secretly nursing a childish fantasy of seeing his face for the short few months that she'd known him, it was hard to not feel just a little bit sad that he felt the need to cover himself again.

Wheeljack had appeared out of nowhere in her life-Well, nowhere wasn't the best term considering the fact that he'd been following her for quite some time before a completely unrelated car accident had necessitated the Autobot to reveal himself. Little had Allison known that for nearly an entire month a giant robotic alien scientist disguised as a car had been following her. She'd thought some overzealous stalker in a flashy vehicle had been the culprit. She couldn't have been further from the truth.

Fast forward to the now, and after many cuts, bruises, dents and cracked plating, they had a cryptic, but very broken device called the Pendulum that supposedly held the coordinates to their home planet, Cybertron. The exact location and a means of contacting Cybertron had been lost to the Autobots when they crashed on planet Earth millions of years prior. Allison's former boss, a fellow scientist and inventor named Herbert Arkeville, had gone missing around the same time Wheeljack had appeared. He had apparently stumbled upon a way to contact Cybertron without realizing it. Having several conversations with some mystery person claiming to be an Autobot, he'd called it the "Voice" then promptly disappeared after things had gotten creepy. This lead Allison to believe that the voice had been more than it seemed to be.

All she had were impressions written in his journal; notes of a man she had cared for like the father she never had. In turn, she unwittingly became a part of the events which saw Arkeville begin a slow descent into madness. They had found the Pendulum-the transmitter-now broken, but regardless of how crazy the person had been on the other end, it was still a means to contact their home planet and potentially call down the help they desperately needed: Reinforcements to end the silent war that had been raging on planet Earth for centuries without anyone realizing it. Thankfully they had gotten to it before Soundwave and Starscream had, otherwise the resulting reinforcements would have had entirely different motives.

The planet Cybertron was ravaged by centuries of war, and was now all but uninhabitable. They didn't even know if there was anyone left, but it was all they had.

Unfortunately for all of them, the device was broken. Wheeljack thought he could fix it, but he needed his proper laboratory at the Autobot base in Detroit, which was where they were heading now. As it had been very important to Wheeljack for Allison to accompany him, she had left the only life she had ever known in Sealth City, along with the remains of their destruction behind.

It had been explained to her as a Sparkbond, completely harmless and platonic in nature, but as strong as the most powerful and loving of human relationships. It could happen between any of Wheeljack's own kind, and was the strongest of their own personal bonds on what was a very deep spiritual level for them. It wasn't romance, as their kind did not form _those_ types of connections, having no need for physical intimacy. They simply weren't wired that way, but their physiology was still a vastly foreign concept to Allison.

Somehow, Wheeljack had bonded to her during what had been a very inopportune time; on the run and racing against the Decepticons to find the Pendulum and get out of town as quickly, and in as much of one piece as possible. Perhaps those events were what had caused the bond to form. Allison still wasn't quite sure how to feel about it, but as she had grown to love Wheeljack in a powerful familial sense, she had been compelled to follow her instincts, and heart, and stay with him. It had been hard not to, because admittedly she'd grown rather fond of his company. Excitement seemed to follow him, and by extension, she had gotten caught up in it, but he had cared for her with no fear for his own personal safety. He made her laugh, made her happy, and simply made her feel good about being alive. If that didn't instigate love, on any kind of level, then love just didn't exist.

Besides, her apartment had been destroyed by Starscream. And with her boss missing, the building leveled to the ground and ties connecting her to the incident that would inevitably be picked up by law enforcement, she was essentially unemployed. It wasn't like there had been many other tempting options to consider.

Now she was traveling cross-country with a group of alien robots that dwarfed her small human frame in comparison. And the hardest thing was, she couldn't share it with anyone. They were hiding, and when in public spent their time disguised as various mechanical objects, most commonly cars as it allowed them the freedom of mobility. In more private places however, where there were no prying eyes, they were free to remain in their bi-pedal, humanoid form, which was shockingly less disconcerting. There was something about a car that seemed to be able to _see, hear and feel_ you, not to mention talk to you out loud, that was mildly discomforting.

This was apparently one of those times where the Autobots were feeling social, and as they were in the middle of what appeared to be a secluded high-way rest stop Allison started to feel a little nervous that someone would blunder into them at any moment. The fact that Wheeljack and Ratchet were not nervous, didn't help make her less concerned.

"How are you feeling?" Wheeljack finally asked, perhaps sensing Allison's agitation as she couldn't help but look around where they'd ended up. Scrub land was a generous term, as it simply looked like a big grassy field that hadn't been watered in centuries. They were surrounded by low-lying mountains, and one lone tree looked out over the endless waves of yellow grass. The only signs that there had ever been any human presence was the sorely neglected wooden shed and dirt road that presumably lead back to the highway. The shed was obviously some kind of bathroom, its doors hanging widely off its hinges, and she suddenly felt her cheeks flush. _How embarrassing._

"Uh, fine," she said absently, wiping her hands on her pants. She looked down at herself and frowned. She was a hot mess of thread-bare, filthy, torn clothing, and was going to need a new wardrobe yesterday. All of her worldly possessions had been incinerated with her entire apartment building. "Fine, considering that I was shot in the back with advanced alien weaponry. I'd say I'm doing remarkably well."

It was obvious to her that Wheeljack was frowning behind his mask by the way his eyes drooped. She could hear a subtle grunt from behind her, which made her pause. She turned to look at Ratchet, who was watching them with a very direct, piercing gaze.

Wheeljack spoke first. "Ratchet has... Well, you see Allison... Ratchet's asked me to ask you if he can... um..." Wheeljack stuttered, his strangely placed east coast-sounding accent making his words hitch in ways that were still a bit odd to Allison.

"Out with it Wheeljack," Ratchet huffed.

"Ratchet wants to look at you," Wheeljack blurted out.

"_Needs_ to," Ratchet corrected. "It's not something I enjoy, you know."

Wheeljack cycled air, like a great, heavy sigh from his entire body all at once. "Ratchet _needs_ to look at you."

"Needs to look at me, why? I'm right here..." Allison felt awkward as she paused, because Wheeljack's taken-aback expression was about as genuinely surprised as a startled kitten getting its milk taken away. She laughed at his sheer childishness, until it dawned on her what he'd actually meant. Her face grew hot, and she could feel her cheeks flush with annoyance.

"I need to look at your back, unless you'd rather let the wound fester," Ratchet added in a manner far more matter-of-factly than she truly cared for. Bedside manner was not one of Ratchet's stronger points.

"Like hell you are..." she gasped, sounding more aggressive than she'd intended, but the idea of having Ratchet pull her shirt up was not an enticing one. Especially in the middle of nowhere where anyone could wander into them, and what a show _that_ would be. Ratchet was undaunted, and had no problem staring her down, as if the weight of his glassy blue stare alone was enough to make her snap. "You're _not _doing that if I have anything to say about it."

She supposed she should have known that she'd set herself up for that one, but the immediate blank stare Ratchet suddenly gave Wheeljack clued her in far too late that she in fact, would have _no_ say in the matter.

"I'm sorry, Allison," Wheeljack blurted, and on instinct she turned to face him, only to find her arms suddenly pinned to her sides by Wheeljack's index fingers and thumbs. She squirmed against him, but in this matter he was unfortunately going to side with Ratchet. "Ratchet just needs to see your back. That's all." Wheeljack offered, but all he got from Allison was a saddened huff as she proceeded to stare unseeing at Wheeljack's chest, pretending to appear indifferent. In reality, she was feeling cornered.

Thankfully Ratchet was not going to keep her waiting like that forever. She hissed, from multiple sources of discomfort as he proceeded to lift the back of her shirt up. Humiliation couldn't even begin to describe how she was feeling.

Completely unchallenged, Ratchet prodded the tender flesh just under her shoulder blades where Starscream's scaled down Null Ray had hit her. It felt strangely numb, and it was only the cold winter air against her back that bit her senses back into the present, reminding her that she was standing in the middle of a field with two robots and her shirt up. Despite the angry warmth in her face, and the tightness of just about every muscle in her body, Ratchet's movements were brusque and completely devoid of feeling. It was as if this was no different then someone examining a piece of fruit for damage before buying. Somehow she found that even more uncomfortable, forced to stare forward at Wheeljack's green and white chest plating pretending she didn't care.

Wheeljack's face looked almost apologetic, but she just pouted back at him, feeling disheartened. She knew that Wheeljack, and even Ratchet despite his gruffness, had only her best interest in mind, but to them her protests were probably a huge mystery.

She yelped as something cold and slightly wet touched her back, and Ratchet drew away a second later with a satisfied huff. Hurriedly putting her shirt back into place, Allison was feeling just slightly overwhelmed and now alarmed at the new tingling wetness on her skin.

"You'll live," Ratchet said bluntly with a dismissive wave of his massive red hand. "And don't touch that salve. It'll keep that wound of yours from causing you anymore grief. Just don't think about running into the Decepticon base anytime soon." His jab at her expense was not lost on her, as Allison seemed to have a peculiar knack for blundering into every Decepticon trap imaginable, and somehow made it out alive on all occasions... with minimal injury. Starscream had not been so fortunate...

"Thank you, Ratchet," Allison offered quietly, not wanting to even think on where Ratchet had stored such a medical salve.

"Ah, speaking of Decepticons... Sideswipe is saying that the area is clear... they're returning now..." Wheeljack offered, to Ratchet obviously, as Allison had been barely conscious when Optimus Prime had arrived with the twins to bail them out. She only barely remembered seeing one of them, red with white legs and arms, but she did remember his name: Sideswipe.

And they had arrived just in time. Starscream would have killed her and left her for dead, and then would have killed Wheeljack, had they not intervened. She'd been categorically dead for some portion of the time before Ratchet had somehow resuscitated her. She'd find time to ask about it later, but somehow being reminded of her own mortality was not an appealing sentiment, and she wasn't sure if it ever would be. She was more worried about her new-found sense of discomfort.

"I'm going to go see what's over here..." Allison said feeling suddenly shy and not entirely sure why. She didn't know the twins; they'd simply just _appeared_ and about the only impression she did get of them as they took turns kicking Starscream while he was down was that they were... well, immature was probably too polite. At the time she'd been too focused on calming Wheeljack down after his witness of her death that it seemed unimportant, but now that suddenly made her feel very weird. It had been overwhelming enough meeting Wheeljack for the first time, standing outside her apartment balcony (which had been in ruins because of him) only to be carted away to his makeshift "home." That home had been nothing more than a gutted out barn that he'd somehow managed to build a workshop of sorts underneath. That inevitably got destroyed by the Decepticons too.

Meeting Ratchet had been tolerable, though her first encounter with him wasn't far removed from her introduction to the twins, as he'd essentially popped up out of nowhere after a sudden fit of panic at her plight had caused Allison to flee from Wheeljack. She still hadn't gotten the hang of trusting him, and at the time, practically running straight into another one of them had been pushing it. Ratchet had taken her back to Wheeljack like she was a puppy that had simply wandered out of the yard, and they'd reconciled easily, and that had been the end of it. Things finally calmed, and she was surprised at how quickly she'd gotten used to Wheeljack's and Ratchet's combined presence, as daunting as they were.

Then Arcee had come along, having just crashed onto the planet causing Ratchet to disappear for some time. Presumably it had been to tend to her and dispose of what remained of her entry ship, but Allison would never know as she hadn't yet been brave enough to ask Ratchet about it. It became quickly evident to Allison that Ratchet and Arcee were bonded, and asking too many questions about the female Autobot had seemed like an intrusion. While Arcee had been gracious and unfeasibly kind, though tough and capable in a no-nonsense way, it had started to shred Allison's sense of normalcy. It was getting hard to stay grounded in reality, cut off from her own species and surrounded by giant robots.

_More _of them came later, and by that point it had gotten overwhelming. Allison was normally a shy person, and that seemed to only be accentuated by the eventuality of meeting more of an alien species. Their leader, Optimus Prime, had come to help them, bringing twin reinforcements with him. Too much had happened, and she had yet to actually meet them save for passing glances. Now however, there was no immediate medical concern or death hindering her ability to be social, and the only thing stopping her was her own childish insecurities.

Folding her arms around herself, Allison caught Wheeljack's calm eyes, and he was staring at her knowingly as if he could read exactly what was on her mind. On multiple occasions, Allison had wondered if he could do just that. She knew he couldn't, but apparently Soundwave _literally_ could, being the mind reader around these parts and a source of a different kind of horror. Starscream had been openly vicious, and even perverse in a sadistic way, but Allison suspected it was just for the sake of torture; like he enjoyed seeing her reactions. Soundwave on the other hand, had been a silent ghost of malevolence, like a vicious dog waiting to be let off the chain.

Allison could feel the weight of Wheeljack's gaze as she wandered over to the gnarled tree that she'd observed earlier, wanting to temporarily remove herself from the situation so she could prepare herself mentally. She could hear the approach of two very fast, very powerful engines as she disappeared behind the other side of the tree looking out onto the field.

Nobody would have been able to see it from where she'd been standing near the rest stop, but there was a small pond nestled at the bottom of the field's slope. The water glistened in the sun, the crisp winter air making it appear glassy as it reflected the overcast, grey sky. There were a few mallards gliding along the water's surface, leaving snaking trails behind them as they paddled aimlessly. Allison heard the twins approach the other two Autobots behind her, barely taking a seconds breath as they transformed from their alternate forms without so much as a pause in motion. She could hear them talking. Ratchet sounded unimpressed and annoyed, and this brought a small smile to her face as she watched one of the ducks waddle out onto the shore. She heard Wheeljack's more off-handed tones, colored by the voices of what sounded like two very young, laid-back individuals, almost like teenagers. They sounded very different compared to the grizzled, more experienced older bots.

Allison's attention drifted away from their voices: laughter, and a harsh snarl as Ratchet said something in response to whatever was going on. Allison frowned to herself as her gaze locked onto the water. The cold air hit her skin, and just as soon as she felt the goosebumps rise on her bare skin, did it finally hit home that the very fact that she was sitting there breathing was a miracle. She had been dead, as lifeless as a rock; no pulse and no breath, her life snuffed out in an instant of cruel vengeance. Starscream had wanted to hurt Wheeljack, and to do so he had killed her right in front of him. She'd obviously missed what happened next, but she had a good idea as to what had transpired. Wheeljack had gone into some kind of berserker rage, which was completely out of his normally passive, eccentric character. He'd lost himself in a need to kill Starscream for what he'd done, and he'd nearly succeeded, having blasted Starscream into a forced, but very aware, stasis with what he'd called his Gyro-Inhibitor.

Ratchet and the others had arrived seconds later, and Ratchet had saved her... and she had saved Starscream. She'd shown him _mercy_, pleading to Wheeljack not to kill him, and he'd _listened_. Why had she saved him? She didn't know if she'd ever know the answer to that question. It had just seemed... like the right thing to do.

Starscream was a prisoner of the Autobots now. Optimus Prime had forged onward with Arcee to return to Detroit, their prisoner still locked in stasis in Prime's trailer, and secured with a haphazard tarp thrown over him. For now he was gone, but that encounter was going to haunt Allison forever. The way Starscream had looked at her before he'd grabbed her-before killing her-terrified her to think back on it now, and somehow she knew that having him around was not going to make getting over it any easier.

Suddenly sitting by herself had lost all of its novelty, and Allison was feeling very alone and exposed not hearing their voices anymore. She had a compelling need to be near Wheeljack, and in order to do that she'd need to swallow her insecurities. She was going to meet an entire base full of autonomous alien robots soon, so she might as well start with a few of them now.

What Allison didn't expect, was to turn around only to find one of them waiting for her. With a healthy, frightened gasp that nearly sent her poor abused heart back into shock, she jumped back. She had not expected to find one of them literally waiting for her to come out of hiding. The red one, Sideswipe, was kneeling down with his head bowed almost like a cat waiting to pounce, but there was a genuinely curious look on his face.

A moment of silence passed between them where Allison wasn't quite sure how to react. He was mostly red, with white forearms and legs, and mixed pieces of black on his body. He had a surprisingly youthful face, if one would describe it that way, with strong, straight angles on all his human-like features; very masculine. Allison wasn't sure if he was waiting for her to say something, but instead of coming up with something, she gaped.

"Hi," he said finally. The simplicity of his greeting surprised her, but in all honesty Allison didn't really know what she had expected. His softly glowing eyes were curved in such a thoroughly disarming way, that Allison could almost imagine if Sideswipe were human, he'd be dangerously charming. She felt her cheeks get hot with embarrassment at this notion. "I'm Sideswipe." He pointed at his own wide, massive chest that was very clearly the hood of a sports car, complete with the sharply angled headlights at the bottom corners.

"I know," Allison said stupidly. "I remember you... sort of." It didn't seem appropriate for her to point to her own chest; he clearly already knew who she was. He looked like an overly excited puppy as he seemed to bounce on his own legs.

"You're Allison," he answered for her. "Primus, you're tiny," he said with an exuberant shrug. The two car tires at the top of his massive shoulders swayed heavily as he moved, but it didn't appear to be the least bit disabling to him. Wheeljack had two of his alternate form's tires on his own shoulders, but they were more obscured by the plates of his armor. Sideswipe's were very obvious, and they spun slightly when he moved, moving back and forth as if they were a very part of his expressions.

"And you're very big," Allison responded sourly, remembering a similar reaction from Wheeljack when he'd met her. Did they all feel the need to point out how small she was? This elicited a boisterous laugh from Sideswipe that made Allison flinch. His laugh was very human. It was somewhat disconcerting having something of such size, and likely a million years her senior, appear to act so relatively so young.

"I like you. Who knew the _Boom Bot_ could pick 'em?" Allison looked at him questioningly at this, knowing at the same time that was a reference to Wheeljack's _reputation_. It was still odd hearing it out of someone else's mouth. Admittedly she hadn't yet seen many reasons for Wheeljack's self-proclaimed penchant for destruction except for the fact that he had no qualms about breaking things that didn't belong to him. Her car had been one such poor soul; his sly attempt at keeping her restrained and unable to wander off before they'd properly met.

It was that moment that Allison caught Sideswipe's yellow counterpart stalking up behind him like a tiger, uninterested scowl the polar opposite of the expression on the Autobot's face before her. Sideswipe visibly brightened, clearly sensing his brother's approach, and he smiled goofily at her. His eyes were squinted happily, creating bright streams of lights that bounced off the sharp angles of his face.

"Hey Sunny, I like her, she's sassy..." he said, motioning at her with a broad sweep of his arm. Allison stepped back, watching his brother carefully. He was a bright canary yellow offset with black, and the obvious name recognition clicked in her mind immediately. This was obviously Sunstreaker, but instead of greeting him, she peered at him with hesitation. He did not look friendly. In fact, he looked completely uninterested. He only grunted in response to his brother's attempt at conversation. At least they didn't look the same. Allison had been paranoid that she'd have to learn to tell the difference between two robotic twins, but had she not been told they were somehow "related" she would have never got that impression by looking at them.

Sideswipe shrugged off his brother's lack of commitment, perhaps used to it, and turned back to Allison. He made a motion as if to scratch his ear, or the protrusions on his black, armored head that looked like long pointed ears. They were on both sides of his head, square and angled backwards almost like elven ears. Sunstreaker had similar fixtures, except his jutted outwards from his head and pointed up like the horns of a samurai's crest. It actually made Sunstreaker look rather intimidating, but Sideswipe looked harmless in comparison, if not for the very large cannon on his back. Allison hadn't immediately noticed it, but when he leaned in closer it became obvious. It was pointing upwards at the sky, but that didn't make it look any less large, and explosive. Perhaps she'd simply gotten used to the very large rocket that had adorned Wheeljack's shoulder until he'd gotten it ripped off, so things like that were no longer jumping out at her.

"You're a lot squishier than Sari. What's this for?" Sideswipe reached a finger out as if to touch her, and as soon as she realized where his hand was going on her chest she grabbed it with a yelp.

"What do you think you're doing!" Allison cried, startled. He looked genuinely surprised, eyes widened to large glowing circles on his face.

"They don't like to be touched, 'Sides," Sunstreaker finally said. His voice was deeper and more gravelly than his brother's, but still retained an edge of youthfulness. There was only the smallest hint of amusement on Sunstreaker's grey face, but it disappeared almost immediately. Allison was far too perturbed after being called _squishier_ to really care.

"I don't care if you touch me, except for a few exceptions, and you'll learn what those are _very_ quickly..." Allison let go of Sideswipe's finger and attempted a smile, because the Autobot was pouting. He was even more of a giant baby than Wheeljack was, and about a million times more roguish.

Finally as if on queue Allison spotted Wheeljack emerge from somewhere behind the building and a stand of trees with Ratchet very close behind him. When Wheeljack saw the trio of them his eyes narrowed suspiciously, but there was a hint of amusement within their sparkling blue depths like he knew exactly what was going on. Feeling immensely relieved to be saved from such an awkward situation Allison darted around Sideswipe's bulky frame and ran toward Wheeljack. He paused mid-stride.

"Are they bothering you?" Wheeljack said, looking down at her. Allison had to crane her neck all the way back just to see him properly. Her back twitched annoyingly at this motion, but she ignored it.

"No, they're harmless," she said airily. "Are we leaving now?" She glanced back and saw that Sideswipe had stood. It was only then that some of the physical similarities between Sideswipe and Sunstreaker became apparent. They walked over to them as if to join the conversation, but they simply stood and observed. Allison felt herself naturally gravitate closer to Wheeljack's lower leg, as the Autobot offered her a strong sense of familiarity, a comforting presence to counter the awkwardness that came with meeting new faces. They were tall, and very broad, but in such a way that it exuded an idea of musculature and power that was very warrior-like. They were meant for battle, whereas Wheeljack was a scientist. His bulk, while no less powerful looking, was more brawn then speed, unlike the twins. Although she'd come to learn on more than a few occasions that Wheeljack was much faster than he looked; startlingly so.

"We're not long outside of Detroit, but we've made the decision to stop for the night so you can have a proper rest, and do whatever it is you might need to do in a real berth..." Wheeljack was holding the back of his head with uncertainty, but Allison knew what he meant. The prospect of a shower and a real bed after weeks on the run was about as enticing as getting handed a million dollars in hard cash. "Ratchet is not concerned for your health at the moment."

"Great. That means I won't drop dead in the middle of the night, right?" Allison said darkly, even though she was aware that Ratchet knew vastly more than any human doctor did. He could somehow read her chemical and physical queues in ways she knew that even the most powerful of human machines couldn't even hope to accomplish. It was strange, but despite all his cantankerous, somewhat outlandish ways Allison had grown quite fond of Ratchet over the past few weeks. He was endearing in that "hate to love them" kind of way. Plus, he had brought her back to life, so he did have that going for him.

"If you really must put it that way..." Wheeljack said, cycling air. He was frowning again, and Allison tried to give him her most charming half-smile to wipe the deeply saddened look off his face. Allison hadn't been conscious to witness the true level of devastation that Starscream had caused, but she could imagine well enough what it had done to Wheeljack. The Autobot was not an inherently angry or violent being, but the level of rage that she had seen when she'd begged him to spare the Decepticon was like a torrential hurricane hovering just over the horizon. It was a painful reminder of her own fragile mortality compared to them, and how closely intertwined to Wheeljack she now was, whether she liked it or not.

"I'm sorry I know I shouldn't talk like that," she said, giving his leg a little pat. It was hard to look enthusiastic when she knew that as soon as she was alone with her eyes closed, her brain would be throwing all sorts of horrific Starscream-induced visions at her. His face brightened visibly, the lit ear panels on the sides of his face glowing a rosy pink with content.

"This is all very lovely, but Prime will be waiting for our full report, so we really should get moving if we hope to be there by the next century..." Ratchet cut in with much disapproval in mid-stride away from them. He transformed in a messy rush of robot-to-ambulance parts as his car form hit the ground with a heavily strained thud.

"Looks like someone needs some upgrades..." Sideswipe muttered, following suit. Instead of a mess, all the pieces of his body seemed to move in flowing harmony as his upper body came together, simultaneously lowering to the ground as the final plates of the car snapped into place. Sunstreaker's transformation was very similar, and she was faced with two identical, but differently colored sports cars. Very expensive, and very fast sports cars. Allison breathed in, not being one to go crazy over cars, but still able to appreciate the sheer novelty of two Lamborghini's sitting before her.

"I may need a few upgrades... but my hearing is still _excellent,_" Ratchet grunted with a roar of the engine. In response, the twins surged forward and peeled out onto the road with only a cloud of dust lingering behind them, as if Ratchet's very retort was some kind of challenge in itself. Just like that, they were gone, the sounds of their engines fading away into the distance. Allison finally exhaled.

Wheeljack shifted from under her hands, causing Allison to look up at him. He was leaning over her at the waist, peering down with questioning interest at her. It was only then that she realized she was clinging to his leg. He was being polite.

"Sorry," she said hurriedly, and she moved away to give him room to transform. There was definitely more strain in his movements, and she suspected that it was going to take more than a few days for him to be completely healed. He'd taken quite the beating... _Because of me_, she reminded herself, with no shortage of personal bitterness. Having a doting, fatherly robot willing to run out and get himself killed for you at the drop of a hat was a hard pill to swallow.

"You're coming with me," he said finally, sliding up next to her as the driver's door popped open. After Ratchet's insistence that she ride with him should anything happen to her, she wondered if she was going to be forced to be in his company all the way to Detroit. Thankfully that was not to be so. She much preferred to be with Wheeljack.

After a brief, legitimate visit to the facilities at which they had stopped at, she fell into Wheeljack's front seat oddly content. It felt like it had been a long time, but in reality it had only been a few days. The comforting warmth in the air was not forgotten, and Allison touched the surface of the dashboard gently as she sat down in the faux driver's seat. A familiar rumble of approval passed beneath her fingers, the sign that Wheeljack was satisfied. Even though his intellect vastly out measured hers, and she would never fully grasp everything he'd seen and done in his long lifetime, there were still moments where she felt that she truly understood him.

"Wheeljack, who is Sari?" She asked as they started back down the road, the dust from the two Lamborghini long settled back onto the ground. Ratchet was in front of them, the "Medic One" plastered across his back doors a grim reminder as to how she'd spent most of the journey so far.

"You'll find out soon enough."


	2. Of Dreams and Rocket Launchers

**Author's note: Thanks for reading!**

**I'm really love Transformers: Prime's version of Ratchet, and I love Jeffrey Combs (voice actor), so this Ratchet is kind of a blend of both that and Animated, with maybe more of the TF:Prime visual design. At least in my head anyway. But because of these two blends he's pretty cranky all the time.**

**I'm going to try and keep chapters short and easy to follow. **

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><p>It had been the same every night since arriving in Detroit; long, restless, and sometimes sleepless nights of anxiety that so quickly melted into relief upon awaking. It often left Allison drained past the point of exhaustion where she could no longer find it in her mind to relax. Finding herself in the constant company of Ratchet and Wheeljack, having been confined to Ratchet's infirmary for "observation," gave her a little comfort after the horrible experience she'd just endured. She had trouble sleeping, her dreams filled with nightmares and her wounds occasionally causing her to jolt unpleasantly back into awareness.<p>

The only good thing that appeared in her dreams was Wheeljack. She was on the ground, in danger, but somehow it was Wheeljack who looked terrified. He was standing before her with pure terror on his face-his actual, uncovered face-blurring out everything else in the world for the briefest of moments. There was also shame on his damaged, exposed features, and a seemingly obvious desire to avert his eyes and look away. She felt no revulsion, only loving understanding, even as the cold, sneering voice behind her suggested otherwise. Seeing Wheeljack there helped her forget where she was, with the glow of the outside world framing him as it spilled through the hole he had torn through the wall. It was almost like he was an angel there to save her.

But he could not save her, not from what was behind her. The presence was cold, cruel, and a deceitful bastard, the pure embodiment of the name of it's faction: Decepticon.

"I thinks she needs a little push..." The final words she heard before her world was engulfed by an explosion of pain and then darkness echoed in her mind. After that, there was no more. She always awoke as the icy hand of death fell upon her only to be awash in confusion. The lights of Ratchets infirmary, dimmed for her benefit, always appeared a searing red just as she awoke. It was like the eyes of her murderer as he pinned her down against the rough, aged wood that had only briefly been her final resting place. Starscream was only a short walk away, locked away somewhere in the very same bunker she now occupied, and that left her in a state of complete discomfort. It was starting to get noticed.

"Allison?" Wheeljack's voice was tentative. She waited to let her pulse settle before she responded, afraid that her voice would shake if she opened her mouth too soon. She hadn't noticed that she'd made a sound when she awoke, which meant that Wheeljack had likely been watching her long enough to notice her distress. His "sleeping" patterns were not quite the same as hers, but she sensed that he had been forcing himself to try and match her habits for her benefit. Tonight was clearly not such a night, as the Autobot appeared to be completely alert and occupied.

"I'm fine," she whispered, unclenching her fists from around the thin blanket that had been procured from storage upon her arrival. Ratchet had found it fitting to keep her cloistered in his infirmary for an entire week when they arrived, wanting to monitor her health before "releasing" her back out into the base. At first it had been somewhat of a relief to not have to face so many new Autobot faces at once. After being cooped up with Wheeljack for the entire time, who was also on strict orders to not move an inch from the repair birth, she would have been lying if she said that she wasn't going mildly crazy.

It wasn't Wheeljack, for she rather liked getting to spend time with him like this, but his constant hovering was starting to get bothersome. She would have been able to shake it off, if not for Ratchet's explosive fits whenever she even attempted to explore. That, and the not-so-comfortable repair berth that just barely passed for a bed, was starting to make her ache.

She knew that Wheeljack was going stir crazy as well, because when Ratchet wasn't around, he'd taken to tinkering with the medic's equipment as if he thought he was doing something useful. She sympathized with him, and sensed that he was just trying to keep himself busy to stave off the self-harm. Allison wished she could be even mildly useful and less of a burden. So far she'd done nothing but make them fuss over her, and cause Ratchet to ban all of the other Autobots from the infirmary until the both of them were 110% healthy again.

"You were..." he paused, as if searching for a word. "Very active." He was standing over the edge of the berth leaning over her, and Allison found it hard to tell him that his looming above her like a gargoyle was not helping matters.

"It was just a dream, I'll be fine," she said truthfully, taking a deep breath. She felt a sense of calm come over her body, and she turned over onto her side. Her back ached from the meagerly padded surface of the gigantic berth she was laying on. She'd accumulated quite a nest on her temporary bed of hair ties, tissues, bottles of water, hand lotion, and a tube of lip balm. These were haphazardly thrown in with various other knick-knacks she'd been able to acquire the _one_ time Ratchet had let Wheeljack take her into the city for a much-needed restocking of her personal belongings.

"Perhaps you need to rehydrate," Wheeljack said brightly, the panels on the sides of his head bathing the surface of the berth in a temporary blue glow as he spoke. It created weird shadows in the room around her, and Allison wrapped her arms around her body to stave off the phantom chills. Wheeljack's expression dropped as he pushed one of the half-full bottles of water towards her with one finger, and she caught it in the hand she wasn't laying on. She wasn't interested in drinking any water.

"I'm not thirsty," she mumbled. "What are you doing over there?" Looking past Wheeljack she could see a scattered pile of various machinery parts covering Ratchet's worktable on the other end of the room. Wheeljack turned to look at his own handiwork with disinterest, then looked back at her with suspicion in his narrowed eyes, blocking out the glow.

"Re-organizing," he said, as if it should have been obvious. He stood back with arms folded. How he managed to do it with such bulk on his frame she would never know.

"You must really be bored if you're re-decorating Ratchet's med-bay. Somehow I don't think he'll be impressed though."

"Actually, there is one thing I'm working on," Wheeljack said. "Slowly, of course. Ratchet won't allow me to 'over-exert' myself." His arms were still folded, and he was looking up at the ceiling. It looked as if he was waiting for her to notice something. Allison squinted at him, then her eyes opened wide when she finally caught it.

"Your shoulder!" She exclaimed. "It looks..._different_." Wheeljack's right shoulder did in fact look slightly different, as if some piece of plating had been shifted. "You're fixing your rocket... thing."

"This is just the foundation," Wheeljack said, matter-of-factly. "But she'll be ready soon." Wheeljack turned slightly and pointed to a piece of cylindrical piping that Allison could just make out on Ratchet's repair table. She had been so used to the cannon before it had been unceremoniously ripped from his shoulder by Soundwave, but she had also gotten used to Wheeljack's body without it. It was going to be weird seeing him shift back again, because even though she'd gotten used to him having a rather large weapon on his shoulder, it still made her wary whenever it was casually pointing in her relative direction.

"How long until you finish it?" Allison asked, wrapping her arms around her knees. She was avoiding Wheeljack's eyes, because she knew that he sensed her lack of willingness to share what was really on her mind.

"A while," Wheeljack admitted. "There's plenty of other work that needs doing as well, including working out why that slagging transmitter device isn't working. But Prime has it, and Ratchet's threatened to reformat me into a dishwasher if I so much as think about leaving right now," Wheeljack's eyes brightened in silent laughter, and Allison had a hard time not finding humor in Ratchet's threat, because she knew he was bluffing. Nobody ever had the courage to call his bluff though, and Wheeljack wasn't about to be the first one to challenge him.

Thankfully instead of questioning her further, Wheeljack spun back around and walked purposefully back to his abandoned activity. In truth, Allison was surprised he hadn't pressed the issue of her erratic sleeping patterns any further.

With his back turned to her, Allison was granted the opportunity to watch him in silence. She couldn't see exactly what he was doing, but the movements of his arms were stiff. It was like watching someone pretending to be disinterested in something and doing a terrible job of it. The occasional clatter of small metal bits across the surface of the table was the only thing that cut into the heavy _huffs_ of air as if Wheeljack was sighing with great annoyance.

"I would hope by now that you were... comfortable enough to trust me," Wheeljack finally said, stopping abruptly with what he was doing. He didn't turn to look at her, so all she saw was the dim brightness that flashed across the worktable and the metal wall when he spoke. Allison found that she wasn't surprised, as she knew exactly what he was doing.

"I am," she said simply, trying to sound even. She was sincere, she knew she was, but part of her was holding back when it came to this Starscream business. They hated each other. Something had happened between them in the past that had poisoned the waters so much so that it had turned into a personal vendetta between them. Starscream had damaged Wheeljack's face eons ago, severely enough that the Autobot was now self-conscious about his appearance, choosing to keep himself permanently covered by his battle mask. Starscream had walked away from it with a damaged psychosis and a thirst for vengeance, hence the reason for the attack against her. That particular Decepticon was a very private subject for Wheeljack, so Allison didn't want to bring it to his attention. She didn't want to bother him.

Wheeljack went back to his activities for a moment, movements stilted before he paused again. She could tell he was looking for something to say.

"It may surprise you to know that I've learned how to tell when you're lying about something," Wheeljack finally turned, and looked at her with eyes that were a mixed glow of pity and frustration. "There's something you're not telling me. Can I ask why?" He said with some hesitation, panels blinking dimly in the darkened room.

"Because I knew it would bother you," Allison sighed. "Look, I don't like the fact that _he's_ here, in the same building. Yes, it was partially my idea not to kill him, but now I'm rethinking that option," she blurted, knowing that her voice was raised enough should some hapless Autobot be around they would hear her. "I keep seeing those last moments, and it's hard for me to process right now, okay? I'm sorry. I'm used to keeping things to myself. I didn't exactly have an entire squadron of comrades to share my problems with back home."

Wheeljack looked hurt for a moment. "You have me." He stopped, expression pathetic. "I can always slip something into his energon ration-"

"No!" Allison squeaked, startled by the sudden mischief in Wheeljack's eyes. "I'm still not condoning murder. "

"I was joking." He said nonchalantly, waving a hand.

"Joking about the _mess_ you've made of my equipment? What in Primus' name have you been _doing_?" They were both startled by Ratchet's interruption as the wide metal doors of the infirmary's entryway swung open with a thundering clang. "Wheeljack! What are you doing walking around?" Ratchet turned and gave Allison a piercing stare, causing her to swallow hard. "And what are _you_ doing awake? Never mind, I don't want to know. I could hear you two arguing loud enough to wake the dead, now _GET AWAY_ from my things Wheeljack!" Ratchet barked as he stalked towards the worktable, sending Wheeljack fleeing back to the relative safety of his own recovery berth next to Allison.

"I'm functioning perfectly!" Wheeljack complained, having to duck when Ratchet stepped forward and took a swing at him. Allison wisely stayed silent, not wanting to draw attention to herself. Ratchet was even more intimidating now after reformatting. Apparently the type of emergency vehicle he was previously imitating was too localized to their previous hideout. Needing to not stand out, he'd since changed to a new model shortly after returning. He was no less bulkier, just carrying his mass in different places on his white and reddish-orange body. He actually looked slimmer without the cab of the vehicle making up his front, and in a way, it made the medic look just slightly younger, if not for the constant scowl on his face. No amount of reformatting however would repair the cracked arm of the giant chevron crest on his forehead. It only added to the appearance of his constantly severe countenance.

"_Perfect_ is not the term I would use to describe how you function," Ratchet scoffed, turning to investigate the mess Wheeljack had made on his work table. He snatched some indiscernible piece of equipment from amongst the debris, most likely of alien design, because Allison had no idea what it was. Ratchet held it aloft in front of Wheeljack, who had amazingly shrunk in size as if to escape the medic's notice. "Wheeljack." Ratchet continued very shortly. "What happened to my Cosmotron Actuator?" He pointed at the long, spindly device in his hand. It looked like a poorly cared for surge protector, if one were made out of metal with a small read-out monitor on one end. There were wires cascading out of it as if it had been gutted.

"The readings were very poor, I couldn't make sense of any of it so I-"

"You couldn't make sense of it because I have it calibrated for this planet's magnetic field and gravitational variance. Wheeljack, I _needed that_!" And with that the Cosmotron Whatsit-whatever went flying across the room towards Wheeljack, who ducked as it sailed over his head. Wheeljack looked alarmingly amused by this, but Allison thought it was a good time to avoid being noticed as she tried to bury herself back under the blanket. Unfortunately she was unsuccessful. Ratchet turned and gave her a glare that could kill.

"Really, I've been asleep this whole time..." she offered before he could open his mouth. Ratchet looked for a moment as if he was chewing on his own tongue, if he were to have one. She wasn't entirely sure, and she didn't want to think too much about it.

"Your sleeping patterns have been wildly erratic," Ratchet said brusquely, stepping heavily towards the berth and pulling the blanket off of Allison who protested with a frustrated whine. The tip of his finger was bright with a strong pointed glow like an LED flashlight. Allison tried to escape, but all she could manage was an unenthusiastic "Go away" as he grabbed her head. It wouldn't have killed him to be a little bit gentler as he began assaulting her pupils with the harsh light, and she had to blink rapidly to avoid being blinded by the unnecessarily brightness.

"You're going to make me blind!" Allison complained, trying to push Ratchet away.

"You'll be fine," Ratchet said curtly, cycling air. "Dilation is normal," he said absently, pausing. "Although corrective equipment would be a wise option in the near future."

"You mean glasses? What are you talking about? My vision is perfect," Allison said, rubbing her eyes heavily, trying to blink away the burn-in that danced across the path of her vision.

"It is now."

"What do you mean?" Allison inquired, suddenly alarmed. To her dismay, Ratchet didn't pay any further attention to her, as he turned to Wheeljack with a narrowed expression.

"Look I don't want you two stuck in here anymore than you want to be here, but you both took a serious beating," Ratchet paused, and the quick glance he threw at Allison did not go unnoticed by her. She sighed heavily in exasperation. "I need to make sure you are both healthy, and that _you_-" He pointed at Wheeljack. "-Are durable enough for the next time you inevitably end up in here. I've got Autobots practically breaking my doors down wanting to get a look at Allison, so in order to make sure she doesn't faint dead at first sight of them certain precautions need to be made..." Ratchet paused, and threw another cursory glance her way, perhaps sensing the rise in her body temperature as a streak of irrational fear shot up her spine. They were actually waiting for her?

"You make it seem as if I enjoy losing body parts," Wheeljack said curtly, but his eyes were crinkled in a smile that was hidden behind his mask.

"Well, you two are out of here by sun-up," Ratchet said with a wave of his hand. "You're both driving me insane anyway, but I think I can stand to let you go." He pointed in the direction of Wheeljack's cannon. "And you can take that infernal toy of yours out of here with you."

"That toy is actually a high grade piece of weaponry, Ratchet. I love it like it's my own limb." Wheeljack sniffed loftily as if he were insulted.

Ratchet shook his head, irritably. "I don't care. I just want it off my table by the time you're gone. Oh, and before I forget... Prime is ready to speak to you about this Pendulum transmitter so we can figure out if that piece of junk was actually worth nearly dying over." Wheeljack nodded at this, expression suddenly serious. Allison was suddenly reminded that this was the part of Wheeljack's existence, and job, that she had no real place in. She was feeling too overwhelmed with the revelation that there were robots actually waiting to see her to really care. It wasn't long before Allison was brought out of her misery by the sound of Ratchet clearing his throat.

"Speaking of new residents..." Ratchet paused. "Starscream has asked about you." He was eying her carefully, as if waiting for her reaction. Allison wasn't quite sure how to react as she stared at him blankly, but Wheeljack saved her from having to come to a decision by responding for her.

"What?" his sudden growl was so venomous, that Ratchet stepped back, arms raised in surrender.

"Don't blast the messenger, I am simply making her informed before Prowl decides to throw it on her in his own _delicate_ way when Prime speaks to her. He's been trying to get information out of the slagger for days, but he isn't talking and doesn't seem the least bit interested in the fact that he's been de-weaponized. He's only interesting in hearing about Allison, which admittedly has made Prowl curious..." Ratchet was shaking his head, fingers absently stroking the long arm of his forehead crest in contemplation. Wheeljack looked like he wanted to strangle the medic for even suggesting the idea that Starscream be indulged.

"Well the fragger can keep imagining," Wheeljack said, defensively. "Because she isn't going anywhere near him."

Allison knew that she should feel flattered by Wheeljack's protectiveness, but she had the ability to speak for herself, and she thought it was about time she defended herself in her own words.

"Wheeljack, trust me when I say I really appreciate what you're saying," Allison chimed in, not surprisingly causing Wheeljack to look in her direction, eyes aglow with an internal fire. "You've done more than enough to defend me, but I think I can also decide what's best for myself."

"No, you can't, not with this-"

"Please, just stop for a moment and let me finish. Look, it isn't like I intend to take him out for dinner or anything, but-"

"Alright, both of you, stop it!" Ratchet barked with a wild wave of his hand. "Nobody is talking to anyone right now, and I think you both need a time-out before someones delicate feelings are hurt..." That could have actually referred to either her _or_ Wheeljack, but Ratchet didn't point the comment in any particular direction. "Allison, it is the middle of the night, and you need to reset your internal chronometer back to normal, so back to sleep with you." He made a show of organizing the blanket back to an acceptable condition on top of her, while Allison simply let him with no real way to protest otherwise. "And _you_; not another word of this. You need a full recharge cycle before the real work begins." Ratchet leaned close to Wheeljack, and they both looked at each other blankly for a moment as the conversation clearly continued privately between them. Wheeljack's expression turned sour as Ratchet turned his back to begin the clean-up that awaited him on his work table, the discussion clearly over.

Allison had a pretty good idea as to what they'd said. It was clear that Ratchet wanted Wheeljack to drop the subject for her benefit. She wasn't quite sure how to feel about it, knowing that they both meant well in their own ways, but she was tired of them having conversations about her as if she wasn't in the room.

Wheeljack finally glanced at her, and his expression was lighter, like he was taking Ratchet's advice. Allison tried to give him a smile as she made herself comfortable enough for sleep, but she found it harder than it should have been to appear content. Knowing that Starscream was around, and quite possibly thinking about her at that very moment, made her even less comfortable. Her obvious discomfort was likely why Ratchet had told Wheeljack to let it rest. It made her second guess the plea to spare the Decepticon, even though she knew that it hadn't been her decision alone. She assumed Prime would not have condoned violence over humanitarianism. She still hadn't wanted Wheeljack to kill him, even though he'd been more than willing to cause some real harm.

Perhaps it hadn't been for Starscream's benefit, but more for Wheeljack's own conscience that she'd spoken for. Wheeljack wasn't violent. He was practically a giant labradoodle in many respects, and she'd known that somewhere in that vast brain of his he'd have regretted it. He'd told her he'd never wanted to go to war, to fight and take lives, all for the sake of an idea that they'd at some point forgotten over the millenia. He'd pretend otherwise, but she'd heard the guilt in his voice when he spoke to her about the war, and about his past, no matter how well he thought he was hiding it. He was a scientist after all; a creator, not a destroyer.

Either way, the decision had been made, and now Starscream was being kept captive somewhere, possibly thinking longingly of snapping Allison's neck like a twig. Allison would need to simply trust that the Autobots knew what they were doing, and that nothing would happen to her. She could not help but feel disquieted, however.

She sighed, trying to rid herself of her anxiety. Even if Starscream did escape somehow, getting to Allison wouldn't be easy for the vindictive Decepticon. She was surrounded by Autobots, each as large and capable as Starscream. They would be there to take him down-again.

Nothing could possibly go wrong from here.


	3. Like a Coiled Snake

**Author's Note:** **Thanks to those who are reading. At this point I've actually got most of the story written, so I'll try to update regularly.  
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**Universe Stuff: This chapter is a long one, and introduces a new character: I guess sort of G1 and my own interpretation. There's also some mentions of a character who will be showing up later.**

**Starscream: Kind of tricky to pinpoint, but I guess a mixture of G1, maybe a bit of Animated, and more and more influence from Transformers: Prime. I've also added my own interpretation as well.**

**Optimus Prime: I don't think I write him well, but if anything I would say G1/TF:Prime**

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><p>The next morning Ratchet threw Wheeljack and Allison promptly out of the infirmary as promised, but not without giving Allison a final piece of his mind. He'd ushered Wheeljack out first, requesting that Allison linger and follow him further into the depths of the med-bay Allison had been surprised to see an entire room hidden away in the back, with a large, oddly shaped metal desk meant to accommodate a being of Ratchet's size. There wasn't much else in the room save for a pile of metal crates with an assortment of gadgetry scattered on top, a few other various tools of unknown origin, and what looked like a personal berth. This was clearly Ratchet's personal quarters.<p>

Allison couldn't help but feel curious as she looked around, wondering what she was doing in there and what had earned her such a privilege. She couldn't imagine this was something Ratchet was normally comfortable sharing with anyone, let alone a human. Before saying another word, Ratchet had walked to the other side of the desk and sat down, hands folded tightly in front of him as he turned his attention to her with a pointed stare. It was hard for Allison to discern what was going on behind his piercing eyes as they flitted quickly back and forth between her and the ground. Ratchet was carefully considering what he was about to say before actually saying it, and unsurprisingly looked uncomfortable about it.

"I want you to know that I'm really grateful for everything you've done..." Allison began, wondering if she should speak first. The awkward atmosphere was making her nervous. Ratchet held up a hand to stop her mid-sentence, however, his expression unmoving.

"I wouldn't do what I do if I didn't care, but there's no need to thank me," he said very pointedly, the center pupils of his glowing eyes narrowing studiously as his gaze locked onto her. The outer glowing rings that formed the irises of his eyes dimmed, only accentuating his severe expression.

For a moment they remained in contemplative silence, and Allison wasn't sure what else she was supposed to do or say. She wasn't sure why she was even in his room, but could only assume that he'd had a reason for bringing her in there without Wheeljack; he just wasn't openly saying it.

"I'm just glad Wheeljack is okay." Allison finally settled on what was more importantly on her mind, wanting nothing more than the break the silence. Wheeljack had taken a fair amount of damage; had even lost an arm and been rendered unconscious for a few days. It was only because of Ratchet's presence and expertise that he was now in one piece, because Allison doubted that had he been alone, he would have been as lucky.

For a moment Ratchet didn't respond, and simply looked down at his hands as if deep in thought. It wasn't often that she'd seen the medic unwilling to share what immediately popped into is head, but on this particular occasion he seemed uncharacteristically pensive. The whole situation felt very much akin to sitting in a doctor's office waiting to be told she had some horrible debilitating disease.

Ratchet finally looked at her with a direct gaze, expression very grim, making Allison pause. For a moment she thought her original notion was coming true,and that she was about to get some horrible news about her health, possible something Ratchet had learned while doctoring her. She waited with bated breath.

"Don't make me have to bury you."

Allison thought for a moment that she'd heard him wrong as a spasm of surprise gripped her stomach. She opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. All she could do was stare at him with a questioning look on her face. Ratchet gave a quick roll of his eyes, a sign that he was completely over the conversation and had no intentions of continuing it.

"Wheeljack is waiting for you. Go." Ratchet inclined his head to the general direction of the main entrance, and not missing the command, Allison turned to go. She tried her best not to hesitate at the door, thinking that there should at least be something for her to say in response to such an admission of concern, but for the life of her, her brain couldn't create it. Instead, she silently hurried away, trying to organize her face into something less shocked when she reached the doors where Wheeljack was waiting for her.

"What did Ratchet want?" Wheeljack asked brightly, and for a moment Allison considered telling him. Instead, she hesitated, forcing a laugh as she looked up at him.

"Nothing. Just told me to keep a fire extinguisher handy," she lied, and she thought she hadn't been convincing, except for the fact that Wheeljack didn't question it further.

"He did, did he?" Wheeljack huffed, unimpressed. "I'm not _that_ irresponsible."

"Keep telling yourself that," Allison responded, sarcastically, letting Ratchet's previous comment rest in the back of her mind. There were more urgent worries to consider, not the least of which her anxiety about being surrounded by unfamiliar, very big faces. Wheeljack might have sensed her discomfort.

"Nobody's going to bite you, Allison..." Wheeljack said with some sympathy. The fact that she was now hovering very close to his leg was a probably a pretty good cue as to how she was feeling about it.

"This feels like high school all over again..." Allison said with some distaste. "I'd rather not relive that nightmare."

"Nonsense. Besides, they know they have me to answer to if they bother you, and I can make things very uncomfortable when the occasion calls for it." Wheeljack said cheerfully, leaning over to peer down at her with barely hidden amusement. He appeared healthier than she'd ever seen him, free of the dents and scuffs that had become a part of him for the last month or so. On a slightly less exciting note his shoulder rocket was now fully repaired, and Allison could swear that it somehow looked bigger and dangerous than it did before. Despite her discomfort at the explosive mounted next to his head, she had to trust him. A few last-minute tweaks by Ratchet had him carrying himself much lighter than ever. He certainly seemed shinier. "They're family."

"What would you do then, arm wrestle?" There was a time where Allison might not have ever pictured Wheeljack ever being physically involved in a fight using his fists. He'd always seemed like someone who would use his environment or his own weapons, on the occasions when the more pacifist Autobot was forced to fight, though more out of practicality than cowardice. However, the last few weeks had pushed those kind of thoughts firmly aside. Wheeljack had proven himself not just capable, but _willing _to throw himself into any danger regardless of the harm that might befall him. In fact, there was a certain edge to Wheeljack that always seemed to hide just below the surface; as if being on the brink of danger was his very element.

"Aha, no. They would probably _enjoy _that. Actually, I pull rank, so I would simply order them to partake in an activity that would severely compromise their spirits."

"Such as...?"

"Lab assistant," Wheeljack answered.

"Wow, that's harsh," Allison said. "I'm especially impressed that you'd admit that the position isn't highly desirable."

"It _does_ come with its inherent risks," Wheeljack admitted. "Everything's going to be fine. Just follow me and we can get this over with." And with that Wheeljack began walking down the corridor away from the infirmary.

It was hard to believe that the building had at one point been a warehouse, because it no longer looked remotely like it had been inhabited by humans. The signs of modification were everywhere: pieced together welding that created new metallic walls and hallways that were wider and taller than anything Allison had ever seen before. It was a constant reminder how small she was compared to Wheeljack, and she couldn't imagine walking these halls all by herself for fear of getting lost. Various bits of machinery and technology of indiscernible use littered the floor like they had been hastily thrown aside with no other place to store them.

The very walls themselves were piecemeal, different shades and textures of metal whose origin she could only guess. Their crashed ship perhaps? A scrap yard? It seemed unimportant to ask about, but it was interesting to look at. It was all in its own way very chaotic, like an environment that was constantly on edge, even though there was nobody else occupying the halls other then the two of them. Perhaps that was what made it all the more unbelievable.

"Where are we going?" Allison finally asked, finding herself straying unnecessarily underfoot as if the large, closed doors they passed would open up and swallow her whole.

"We're going to see Prime, although I would advise against venturing too far past Ratchet's infirmary. It might be too dangerous..." Wheeljack said. He was being careful not to step on her. "It's just personal quarters anyway. Nothing that exciting..." Allison could read between the lines. It wasn't what Wheeljack was saying that held her attention as it was the stuff he was trying hard _not_ to say. It was almost painfully clear that the barracks weren't the only thing up past the infirmary, and chances were very good that it was Starscream. The Decepticon was being kept on the base, that much was certain, and Wheeljack was doing his best at being discrete in keeping her away. She just felt a little unimpressed in how unsuccessful he was in doing so.

"Well where do you sleep?" She asked, trying to save him the trouble of appearing terrible at bluffing.

"The other end of this corridor, next-door to the infirmary. It's quieter there." Allison translated that inside her head to _"as far away from the other Autobot's as possible and as close to the medbay as it could be should anything go wrong." _It made her wonder where he expected her to sleep, and if it was even _safe_.

"You'll be fine," he added, and Allison wondered if her silence was somehow conveying exactly what she was thinking. It made her feel a bit guilty, because she knew he wouldn't intentionally put her in harm's way. She'd just have to go with it and trust him. "I set aside a room for you earlier; it has fresh hay and a big trough of water for you." Wheeljack had his brow plates raised as if he was waiting for a reaction from her, to what was clearly a joke by the way his glimmering eyes were curved. Allison couldn't help but smile, thankful for his attempt at getting her mind on other things.

"Oh yes, I've always wanted to sleep in a stable." She said with equal sarcasm.

"Actually I asked Sari earlier for a little advice on what to include. I'd have asked you but I figured that might seem imprudent."

"You all keep mentioning this Sari. Who is that? Is she an Autobot too?"

"Ah, not exactly. I'll explain later when she's here, I promise. It's kind of a long story." Wheeljack had stopped at the end of the corridor after a sharp turn, where another set of unmarked doors stood before them. It was a wonder that anybody knew where anything was, because it all looked the same to her.

"This place is like a maze, it's so huge. How do you not get lost?"

Wheeljack tapped his head. "Internal schematics. Really it's like autopilot I guess. I just know where to go. That and this place has been home for so long that really it's just familiar. This place isn't really all that big." He looked down at her, motioning with his fingers to indicate how small the place was. "In fact it's really quite tiny."

"Not to me, it isn't," Allison said. She realized quickly that he was right, in a way. To a human the dimensions almost swallowed her. But to an Autobot, it was probably something akin to a very small living space with options. Now and then she had noticed Wheeljack duck under a hanging pipe or protruding cable. It just hadn't registered that he was obviously seeing things much differently to herself. If this was 'tiny', she couldn't fathom what something back on Cybertron must have looked like.

"This is the monitoring station where we keep an eye on things. It's really not that exciting, and monitor duty is even worse..." Wheeljack continued, bleakly, rolling his eyes. He gestured with his hands, arms spread wide. "And this is where I'll be for the next seven days... staring at giant computer screens until Ratchet deems me ready to return to the patrol schedule."

Allison couldn't help but look around the hallway, a nagging, piercing sensation on her back that made her squirm. It was like eyes on the back of her neck, watching her. Starscream was somewhere around here, possibly very close, and she shivered a little at the thought. She was also not looking forward to walking in that room, but Wheeljack was too busy chattering away to notice her hesitation.

"Sounds like you're going to be stuck here for a while, then?"

"Yes, but I have plenty of things to do while monitoring to keep me from getting bored. Really, if anything it means I get to be on my own, and that gives me plenty of time to work on some personal projects I've been meaning to make a start on. If I wanted to, I could simply create a basic orbital voluming matrix that can monitor all facets of the facility from three different projection planes... Occasional vertex glitches taken into account, of course. The computer will have to re-render those in real time, which usually takes a few hours. But that'll allow me to watch over the target area and not have it impede my more important endeavors. Impressive, huh?" It was a moment before she realized that Wheeljack was still looking at her.

"Um... yes, it is." In reality she didn't understand a word he'd just said. "By 'more important endeavours', you mean blowing stuff up, correct?"

"You're such a comedian. Come on, let's get this over with," Wheeljack said, waving a hand to dismiss the entire conversation. Allison was feeling too overwhelmed to process the moment, but before she could panic any further, Wheeljack had opened the door. It didn't so much open, but swung forward as if on hydraulics that allowed it to glide open mechanically. Wheeljack strode into the massive control room, leaving Allison astray for a moment as she had to rush forward to catch up to him, afraid of getting left behind in the hallway.

The entire left wall was dominated by a massive string of computer panels, and alien machinery that Allison would never be able to name or even begin to guess the purpose of. Lights blinked at her in random intervals across every surface, joined by buttons and switches of varying sizes. Pieces _moved_ and shifted of their own accord, as if the very computer itself was alive and working. It was something she hadn't even considered before, that the Autobots and the Decepticons were just a mere part of something far more complex than she could possibly understand. It was almost like they were as much in tune with their technology as it was with them.

Massive screens that covered every other inch not dominated by twinkling lights, buttons, and levers, played various media reports in silence. The images of human chaos and turmoil played on in the background, as two massive Autobots stood around a glowing podium that dominated the center of the room. One of them she recognized as Optimus Prime. The second one, almost as large, was unfamiliar to her.

As if sensing their approach, they both turned from what had held their attention, and Allison saw what appeared to be some kind of raised table, with a glowing surface that looked like yet another computer screen. It bathed the two figures in an orange glow as they moved, giving the darkened room somewhat of a gloomy look, like it was all business and nothing more.

"Wheeljack," Optimus Prime finally spoke, walking forward with an arm out in greeting. His face held an expression of genuine warmth. "It is good to see that you are well," he continued, placing a hand on Wheeljack's shoulder. The Autobot straightened at his commanding officer's touch.

"What can I say? Ratchet is a miracle worker."

"You of all Autobots would know that, I believe." There was a warmth to the giant Autobot's words, and an affectionate sense of humor to it.

"Yeah, I guess I can't argue with that," Wheeljack responded, posture more relaxed as his speech panels blinked softly. Allison wasn't paying attention to their conversation much after that, as she was too transfixed by the room around her. There were massive tables lined along the edges of the room, perhaps meant as work stations, with their own smaller screens affixed to the walls. She wondered where all this equipment had possibly come from, but it occurred to her that they'd likely brought it all from their crashed ship; It was definitely alien and built for large beings.

Between the distractions that caught her attention on the video monitors, she heard snippets of their conversation regarding Starscream... something about Soundwave... more solemn comments about her apartment building that had been destroyed and Wheeljack's near-miss injuries along the way. There were comments about the Pendulum, and what would happen from here. Wheeljack seemed optimistic that he could fix it, but commented on something about _data transfer to a new platform,_ whatever that meant.

Throughout this conversation the other Autobot never spoke, but simply watched from his rigid stance with an upturned stare as the Autobot leader and Wheeljack carried on. It reminded her of a soldier standing at attention during a briefing. Glancing at Wheeljack, he was the polar opposite; completely relaxed and his body language from what she could recognize was like someone talking to an old friend. The other Autobot wasn't looking at her, so she was granted the opportunity to study him before her presence was made known.

He reminded her of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker in terms of build, very tall and broad in the upper part of his body as if he was designed for power and discipline, however his posture seemed to suggest that this individual was not a warrior. He stood stiffly with some kind of square, glowing screen in his hand, and Allison was reminded of a cranky military official who had been stuck with a desk job at some point in his career.

Cosmetically however, he looked anything but. He was visually intimidating with two very large guns mounted on both shoulders, very similar to where Wheeljack's self-modified rocket was. Like Ratchet, he had a red crest on his forehead that pointed upwards as it curved out from the center. The more curious features were the _wings_, or what looked like wings, that were clearly car doors sprouting from his back. They were actually rather admirable, as she'd always been rather fond of the back fins that gave Wheeljack his very distinctive silhouette. It was while Allison was studying them, she finally noticed that they had _Police_ in big bold letters painted across their surfaces.

Allison took a moment to come to terms with the idea that this Autobot masqueraded as a police vehicle. The notion of an Autobot taking on the form of law enforcement was not lost on her. Traditionally, a vehicle that was dressed up to look like a police car was illegal, but since this Autobot wasn't technically a vehicle, one could argue that the issue was lost in one of those grey areas. She was in the midst of wondering what would happen if a person actually mistook the guy for a real cop when she realized that all conversation had stopped.

Wheeljack, ever-so-gently, nudged her with his leg. Startled out of her reverie she looked up at him, only to find him staring at her questioningly.

"Um..." She thought she sounded ridiculous. It was not only uncomfortable having Wheeljack waiting for her to say something, but Optimus Prime and the mystery Autobot were also watching her now. "I'm sorry I wasn't paying attention..."

"That's alright. I can imagine you're very overwhelmed right now," Optimus Prime said, his voice deep and full of warmth. Allison relaxed a little, taking some comfort in his words and knowing that he might have understood what she was going through. All she could do however, was manage a nod. "I imagine you might have questions. You are, of course, free to ask anything you'd like. I would first, however, like to ask a few of my own..." he continued.

"Okay," Allison nodded. "What would you like to know?"

"You've made a big decision, coming back here with Wheeljack, and it is one I must commend you for making. One does not become involved in situations like ours lightly," Optimus Prime continued. "However..." he faltered. "I need to make sure that you aware of the risks involved."

"I assume you mean with the Decepticons, and not Wheeljack." Allison was surprised she'd had the courage to let that come out of her mouth, even though she was pretty sure Optimus was referring to the former. Wheeljack actually laughed, apparently taking that as a compliment.

"She catches on quick," he quipped, pointing at her with a grandiose wave of his hand. He almost looked bigger for a moment, like he was puffed up with pride. Optimus, having gotten the joke much to Allison's relief, was actually smiling and emitted a chuckle of his own. The third Autobot didn't so much as twitch.

"I suppose there are hazards everywhere, but I am confident that Wheeljack will take extra care now that he has new responsibilities," Optimus Prime said, the remnants of laughter still in his voice even as he put emphasis on the word _responsibilities_. Allison knew he was referring to her.

The third Autobot, who had been silent up until now, let out an instinctive grunt. Allison got the impression it was supposed to be a laugh, but it seemed void of humor and seemed more of an instinctive reaction to Prime's comment. "Huh, let us hope." The Autobot's tone was dull and almost lifeless, like he wasn't the least bit interested in the conversation going on around him. There was just something in his delivery however, that led Allison to believe that a lot more had gone on around here in the past that she didn't know about. It was an inside reference, and one that wasn't completely lost on her..

"I... guess I should be clear," Allison finally said, trying hard not to look at the other Autobot, whose name she still didn't know. He was looking at her now with a very weighted stare, like he was calculating and planning out everything he thought she would possibly do; like a machine trying to predict her next move. She brushed it off. "I know it's dangerous. I was in the middle of it... I think I'd be completely blind and stupid to not see that. But I think that's a small price to pay in comparison." She was having trouble voicing how she was feeling; the desire to be with Wheeljack that had compelled her to abandon the very life and city she'd known since she was _born_. It also felt weird to be communicating all this to someone who was a total stranger to her. "Besides, It wasn't like there was much left for me there anyway. I don't have any family left, and I was pretty much a loner growing up..." She felt the typical lack of emotion as she said this. It was something she had long since come to terms with.

Wheeljack shifted, then vented air loudly. Allison knew what was coming, and she rolled her eyes.

"You had that... _boy_, what's-his-name." he said curtly. He was referring to her friend, Daniel West, who had worked in the same building as her, and she'd inadvertently gotten involved. She trusted he would remain silent, and fearing for his safety she'd convinced him to stay behind and not _stay_ involved. She'd known him since high school, and had always sensed that he'd had feelings for her. Wheeljack apparently knew this, because he'd made it very obvious that he'd disliked the guy for reasons that escaped Allison. She could only describe it as jealousy, like Wheeljack didn't want to share her friendship with anyone else, despite the fact that given the categorical differences between them there was no physical attraction between them. Wheeljack's insecurities about the other male would always be a mystery to her.

"I did..." Allison responded mutely, not sure what to say. "He's just a friend. It's a non-issue."

"You made this _friend_ aware of our presence?" The third Autobot finally addressed her directly, and it was like being scolded by the school principal. Allison found that she had no real appropriate answer to that, after all, she had dropped the ball on that one.

"I-" She felt her face getting warm. _I'm in trouble_. "I trust him. It was kind of difficult to keep it a secret when..." She stopped, not wanting to incriminate Wheeljack seeing as it had been because of him that Danny had found it.

"That was my fault. I wasn't thinking straight..." Wheeljack said, stepping in and saving Allison the trouble of tattling on him. She felt approving that he'd been willing to take the heat away from her. "I sort of drove off without a driver, and around here that tends to arouse suspicion."

Allison sighed in appreciation, trying to shrug off the minor annoyance that Wheeljack had brought the topic of her friend up. "I don't know where he is anyway. I lost contact with him after the last time we saw each other. I'm unsure if I'll ever even see him again, so... not much to say." The third Autobot stared at her with an unsatisfied glare, as if he wasn't truly happy with that answer. Allison felt compelled to push the subject now. She felt angry, enough to want to provoke the police bot into some sort of reaction. "For all I know, he could have been killed..."

"Or worse," said the third Autobot, his voice quiet and factual. "Captured and interrogated."

Allison frowned angrily, her brain completely disregarding the size and stature of the police Autobot as she responded with an emphatic point in his direction. "Worse? How is that worse? You tell me how-" She stopped suddenly, aware that every Autobot in the room, save the nameless Autobot, was looking at her with an awkward gaze.

"I apologize," Optimus interjected. "This is our chief security designate, Prowl. His questions may seem harsh, but please understand that he is merely trying to ensure the safety of everyone here." He turned to face Prowl. "However, given Allison's cooperation and the bravery she has displayed, I think it may be safe to accept her opinion on the matter."

There was no following acknowledgment that followed, save for a very subtle nod from Prowl. 'Head of security' seemed to be an extremely apt title, given his appearance. Even his name seemed to express a quiet discipline. Where the other Autobots seemed more apt at front line combat, she could imagine Prowl slinking in the shadows, like some kind of android watchman. He didn't appear sinister, but there was a certain tension she got from watching him, like he was a coiled spring.

"If we may continue our discussion," said Prime. "I believe Prowl has a few questions for you, if you are willing to answer them."

"Alright," Allison nodded. She thought she sensed Wheeljack hovering closer to her, almost protectively. This was slightly worrisome.

"Concerning our Decepticon guest..." Prowl began, deep voice clipped in a very professional manner. "I would like to understand why he seems to be rather..." he paused, as if searching for the right word. "..._Enamored_ with you." He'd brought the small glowing screen up and started tapping away at it, like he was conferring with notes he'd taken.

"Starscream." Allison said bluntly, the annoyance from his earlier questioning still weighted on her mind. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to correct him. It was painfully obvious who he was referring to. She felt the air in the room stiffen, like there was one giant inhalation of air all at once. Now she felt more concerned than anything else that they were surprised she'd have the courage to so boldly speak his name after what he'd done. Despite her fears, it seemed like a trivial issue. "Enamored isn't really the word I'd use. It's more of an obsession." She shook her head. "I... don't know why. Maybe it's because I survived his initial attacks, and he's trying to rectify that? What does he want?"

"You are aware, _Prowl_, that the Decepticon attacked her, right? Specifically targeted her-"

"I am aware of that, Wheeljack."

Optimus Prime held up a hand as if to hold back an oncoming storm. He looked at Allison squarely.

"What Starscream did to you was reprehensible. We simply wish to understand what happened, as we were not there to witness what may have transpired between you two."

"I don't know... honestly. He just seemed very interested in me, that's all." Allison hesitated, looking up at Wheeljack who was looking down at her, eyes piercing and face partially obscured by the bulk of his body. He gave her a quick nod, as if giving her permission to speak what was fully on her mind. She turned back to Optimus Prime and Prowl. "I think his real goal was to hurt Wheeljack... I was just a convenient and easy way to do that." She wondered if they wanted her to go into detail, and part of her thought that it would help ease her mind to share what exactly had happened when they'd been alone. "I suppose you want more than that."

In reality, Allison didn't know how Wheeljack would react. He hadn't been there for a majority of the occasions that she'd interacted with Starscream, as she'd seemed to always get caught alone with him.

"If you would." Prowl said.

"Only if you are comfortable with reliving those moments," Optimus Prime almost seemed to be correcting Prowl's lack of tact, but he didn't let it show on his face, or in his voice. Allison looked between them, finding this somewhat unusual. The Autobot leader clearly let them get away with some behavioral freedom, but corrected it passively on the sly.

Allison looked once more at Wheeljack, trying to convey an apology in her eyes, whether it was necessary or not. He looked somewhat frightened.

"When I was caught by Rumble, Starscream wasn't there. I don't know where he was. Soundwave wasn't even there, because he was..." she hesitated, eyes darting to the floor. Soundwave had been occupied by Wheeljack, who had made a valiant attempt to draw the Decepticon focus away from her. It hadn't worked, and had only led to Wheeljack missing an arm and being severely injured. "...He was occupied. The next time I saw Starscream was when Soundwave finally caught me, but he only commented on his disappointment that Soundwave wasn't as, ah, interested in talking to me as he was. He seemed to get a thrill out of..._touching _me."

Allison rubbed her neck where she remembered Starscream's long, pointed finger sliding against her skin. She paused for a beat, the vision re-awakened in her mind for the briefest of moments before she was startled out of her memories by a soft poke from Wheeljack. His eyes were indecipherable as he'd knelt down near her.

"Sorry... I just think he wanted to scare me, that's all."

The expressions on the other two Autobots were equally hard to discern. Optimus Prime looked at her with eyes that were very grave, and a brow that appeared deeply knotted with tension. Prowl looked at her stonily, and perhaps there was just the slightest hint of pity in his eyes, but it could have been a trick of the light.

"Did he say anything else?" Prowl finally asked, voice unusually loud to Allison's ears as she inhaled a soft gasp of air. She exhaled, trying to put her thoughts together.

"The only time I was actually alone with Starscream was when we were waiting for you guys. I had tried to hide and stall for time, because I didn't know what happened to Wheeljack. That was when he... well I think he would have done a lot more than shoot me if Wheeljack hadn't intervened." What she didn't say-torture-she hoped to convey in her voice, but it was hard to tell if the Autobots caught that nuance. One look at Wheeljack though confirmed that _he_ did. He looked gloomy, as if all of this had happened to him personally. Allison continued.

"He seemed to contradict himself. He said he wasn't there for the Pendulum, and I think that at that moment he truly wasn't. I think he was there for his own petty scores to settle. He also mentioned taking over the Decepticons in the next breath and using the Pendulum for himself. It was all, very hard to process at that moment... he had me pinned to the ground." Allison said the last bit as quickly as she could, wanting to let it out as if she was expelling some kind of horrible disease. "He didn't really say much after that."

"That's nothing unusual. Starscream has always been at odds with Megatron. They disagree on their true _goal_," Prowl said with little enthusiasm, as if he had doubts that the Decepticon goal was a cause at all, and nothing more than a blight. This all seemed very day-to-day for them.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful," Allison said quietly, feeling flushed at how her information was received. She felt as if she'd just spilled an intensely personal secret, and Prowl had simply swept it away in a desk as if it was of no consequence.

"You have been most helpful, Allison." Optimus Prime added, perhaps sensing her discomfort. "This does tell us Prowl that perhaps Starscream was not simply acting on Megatron's orders. Megatron is vindictive, but I doubt he would specifically target one individual. They wanted the Pendulum, that is clear, but Starscream had other interests he was attending to. Perhaps, this is the angle we should attempt with our guest."

"The Decepticon is not interested in talking, and I'm not sure I should spend more of my time trying to force information out of him that he clearly has no interest in sharing." Prowl said with a deep sigh, the first sign Allison had seen that he wasn't just a big walking machine.

"I can always beat it out of him," Wheeljack said gruffly, and it was only when he spoke that Allison noticed he was hovering unusually close to her. Someone hadn't liked hearing what she'd had to say, but it was no surprise that the only response Wheeljack got was a severe expression from Optimus Prime.

"Maybe I can talk to him?" As all eyes rounded on her, including a very intense pair belonging to Wheeljack, Allison stiffened as she realized what she'd just said. Optimus Prime and Prowl were looking at her as if she'd just told a very bad joke and they weren't sure how to react to it. Wheeljack looked a cross between horrified and furious, but was having trouble deciphering which he should feel. His eyes were shifting between a pale white and deeply intense blue as the lined pupils beneath the glassy exteriors of his eyes erratically flitted between her and the other Autobots.

"I do not want to ask that of you Allison..." Optimus Prime began, but he hesitated, the glow of his eyes shifting towards Wheeljack for a moment before concentrating on her once more. Allison was having trouble understanding what was so uncomfortable about her offer.

"I... I know... but if he wants to see me so bad, maybe he'll talk to me instead?"

"I can't let you do that Allison... _Not_ Starscream... that's too risky..." Wheeljack began, but he stopped when she turned and gave him a look of frustration.

"He's here though, right? If you're comfortable with having him, presumably secured, inside the base, then surely he must not be a threat."

"Starscream is always a threat," Prowl said. "That's why we have him specially constrained and de-weaponized. That doesn't make me any more _comfortable_, though. He's slippery, and sometimes his words are all he needs to cause trouble."

"Look, what's he going to do while he's behind bars? You're trying to protect me from words, and that's really not necessary..." Allison said pointedly, but she understood the conflict that had to have been going through Wheeljack's mind. Starscream certainly had a silver tongue of sorts, and he was trying to protect her from whatever verbal assault, or _insinuations_, Starscream was building up inside his head. It was all very lovely, but she wanted something, anything to feel useful.

"Do you have any idea what he will do? He will poison your mind, make you second-guess yourself..." Wheeljack was looking down at her with a mild stir of anxiety in his eyes. It was delicate understanding of what had previously happened to her at the hands of the Decepticon, and he was going to make every effort to keep it from happening again. "He doesn't have to hurt you physically to really cause any harm..."

"I know that... and I think I'll be fine." He was close enough that Allison could plant a small, innocent nudge on his noseplates in understanding gratitude. "I want to help." Wheeljack's head tilted in inquiry at this, but his eyes changed back to their normal sky-blue tone. She turned back to the other Autobots in the room, and immediately turned red as she realized they'd been watching the entire time. Prowl's expression hadn't changed, but Optimus Prime looked oddly approving.

"I will leave that decision up to you, Allison. Only you can determine what you are, and are not, ready for," Prime said. He turned to Prowl. "I want you to accompany Allison down there, should any intervention be necessary." Prowl nodded stiffly at this, and Allison felt a lump form in her throat at the prospect of having to be alone with this new Autobot, having only met him mere minutes ago.

"Wait a minute, it should be _me_ down there, not Prowl..." Wheeljack shifted noisily as he stood back to his full towering height, perhaps to regain some sense of authority in the room to make his point. He was clearly heard, but the Autobot leader just shook his head.

"Wheeljack, you and I are going to have a discussion first about your creative interpretation of inter-stellar Autobot conduct, while Prowl will supervise the conversation between Allison and Starscream." It was the first time that Optimus Prime's voice hardened, and he actually sounded intimidating before the hard glare in his eyes softened the next moment. Allison couldn't help but smile at this. Even though she knew Wheeljack was sort of in trouble, the vision of him suddenly wilted was too pathetic to not be even a little amusing. She sensed Prime would merely have some stern words and nothing more, so she didn't feel too alarmed at the notion of Wheeljack being reprimanded. So far the Autobot leader hadn't given any indication that he was used to coming down hard on his men. "Besides, given your history with Starscream and relationship with Allison, I'm not sure that is entirely wise."

"Yeah, okay." Wheeljack was less than enthusiastic, vocal panels a dull, toneless flash as he spoke.

"I strongly wish to make it known that I am not entirely comfortable with this option considering everything that's... happened." Prowl glanced quickly Allison's way before his glowing eyes shifted back to Optimus Prime. Allison wondered if _everyone_ knew what had happened between her and Starscream.

"Your opinion is noted, but this is Allison's decision to make, not mine." Prime's words were quick, but their rumbling resonance lingered in the air even once he'd finished speaking. Prowl shifted heavily, setting the large, glowing square back onto the table before striding forward towards them. He moved forward smoothly, as if on wheels, and this was an odd contrast against the manner in which he spoke; stiff and just slightly uncharismatic, but he moved like an individual who had a remarkable command of his body.

Prowl was at Wheeljack's side in barely a second before he stopped, and they exchanged wordless glances, during which a brief, private comm-chat may or may not have passed between them. She couldn't see Wheeljack's eyes, and it was already hard to tell what was going on in Prowl's head thanks to his permanently stoic expression. Wasting no further time, Prowl's pointed gaze flicked down to Allison, and he nodded his head at the door.

"Come with me."

Without a word, Allison obeyed, straying only long enough as she felt a tug on the back of her shirt that halted her. Wheeljack was once again on one knee, and he leaned close to her, expelling a gentle rush of warm air before spoke.

"Don't let him lie to you... Whatever you do, just don't listen to him..."

"Everything's going to be fine..." Allison said, giving his face a soft pat. The plating underneath her hand vibrated softly with content, but the worry in Wheeljack's eyes made his already piercing blue gaze pale, allowing her to better see the ringed architecture of his optics beneath. She could have lingered there, watching his eyes shift uneasily back and forth, seemingly avoiding a direct look in her direction, but that would have looked unusual. A soft coughing noise behind her reminded her of this fact, making her jump, and giving Wheeljack one last encouraging look she turned to follow Prowl out of the control room.

The door shut behind her, and regardless of how hard Allison tried, she could not hear their voices behind it. It might have just been that they weren't talking, but she had to wonder if the door itself was somehow shielding their conversation. The room seemed private after all, and it appeared that a lot of important stuff went on behind it. Despite her curiosity, she wasn't entirely sure that she wanted to hear their conversation at all, more concerned about the fact that she was about to come face-to-face with Starscream once more; The Decepticon who had legitimately succeeded in killing her once already.

Prowl did not pay attention to her as he led her back down the corridor she had just traveled with Wheeljack. Instead of turning back the way they had come, they continued forward at the junction down another mindlessly similar hallway, nearly identical to everything else around her. She followed along behind him, having to partially jog to keep up with the Autobot's much larger stride.

Eventually they reached the end of the hallway, where there was a large open doorway that led to an empty room. Curious, Allison wasn't sure if they were in the right spot until she realized that Prowl was walking down a ramp off to the side. Wherever Starscream was being held, it was clear they didn't want him on the same level as themselves.

Stumbling down the ramp after Prowl, Allison was faintly reminded of the makeshift lab that Wheeljack had created in the old barn outside her long-demolished apartment. It had been created in a hollowed-out cellar of sorts, and modified to suit Wheeljack's needs at the time. This room however, was a long, dark corridor lined with empty indentations on one side; like small rooms, except they were merely empty recesses in the walls. At the end, there was a faint glow from some kind of light source, and as she followed the Autobot in silence, she realized that the glow was actually coming from a series of tightly spaced vertical bars.

Prowl stopped a few meters from the cell and indicated for Allison to hang back. She stood behind a small protrusion that stuck out from the wall and hid in its shadow, watching as Prowl approached the bars. He stopped merely inches from it, peering with some distaste at what was within. Allison couldn't see what was there, but she knew as much as felt it. Her previous confidence had left her, as she heard the subtle movement of something very large. A familiar, sinister voice spoke.

"I was hoping I would be blessed with your presence again soon, Prowl." Starscream's shape appeared into view. His form was cloaked in shadow, but his angular body and long face were unmistakable.

Prowl's eyes narrowed. "You knew it was me?"

"I counted your footsteps." When Prowl didn't respond, Starscream continued. "Your routine in your patrols has become incredibly... routine. You always change the path you walk but never the space or timing between your steps, just like a trained soldier. Besides, I'd recognize that arrogant, rigid posture anywhere. Tell me Prowl, has Prime taught you to heel yet?"

Allison half expected Prowl to make a lunge at the bars, but the Autobot didn't so much as blink.

"Resorting to verbal insults, Starscream? You really have fallen low in the world."

"Confined within my cell am I, and yet I tower over you and the others." Starscream's gaze shifted then, leering over Prowl's shoulder. Allison's heart lept as she felt Starscream's burning red eyes looking directly at her. She was silently hoping that maybe he couldn't see her, but the Decepticon shattered that misconception. "And some even more so. Hello, Allison. Come to visit me, have you?"

"She's not your captor Starscream, _I _am. As far as you're concerned, Allison is just a memory for you."

"Oh, but I have a _long_ memory, Prowl. And so, it would seem, does she." Starscream laughed, the sound low and malicious like a lion about to devour it's prey. "Bringing her down here was unwise."

"Bringing her down here was _her_ choice." Prowl's voice was unwavering.

"It was, was it? Well then, I am flattered. It is good to see you among the living Allison." Starscream made a motion with his hand, and the reflection of the light allowed her to see that he was shackled to something, perhaps the wall, but the darkness was so thick she couldn't see far enough back into his cell. Although she had doubts that she would ever get close enough to, for when he spoke to her she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on-end. Somehow, she found the strength to move around the obstruction protecting her, and slowly she made her way towards Prowl. She was however, not brave enough to venture past the Autobot's leg, so she remained in the shadows, hoping to find some upper-hand in the dark.

"Your strength is not as much as you made it out to be," Allison said tonelessly, feeling her voice shake in her throat but thankfully it did not affect the tone of her words. She was surprised at this.

Her strength did not last much longer as movement within the cell accompanied the lowering of the crimson glow of the Decepticon's eyes. He knelt down to meet her straight-on. A wry smile was on his face as his gaze traveled over her, making her skin crawl.

"I assure you, next time I will not hold back."

"There will not be a next time, Starscream," Prowl interrupted. "The only place you're going from here is to the scrap yard." Prowl's weight shifted as his leg slowly moved closer to Allison, obscuring her just slightly. Prowl was protecting her.

"I'm all aquiver." The lack of fear in Starscream's words unnerved Allison, and she could tell the Decepticon was getting under Prowl's skin as he finally bristled at the Decepticon's words. This was the first time the Autobot visibly showed any sort of emotion. It was gone just as quickly as it had surfaced, and Prowl remained unmoving.

"Allison," Prowl said, looking down at her. "Make this quick." He looked back up at Starscream. "Allison has something to say to you." The Autobot's hands moved to rest at his hips in an obvious stance of authority. "I am here to ensure that this time, you cooperate."

Starscream stood and moved to the back of his cell, where Allison could just make out his form sit down, leaning back to recline languidly at what must have been some sort of prison berth. The loud rattling of the shackles that bound him grated against the silence, reverberating in the tight accommodations as the metal dragged against stone. Allison had a hard time understanding how chains could actually confine the massive Decepticon, but she imagined that as they weren't human-made, they were probably designed to resist the force of a struggling Cybertronian body. Otherwise, she didn't think they would do much good, and somehow, the glowing bars of light didn't seem all that much safer.

Two red eyes peered at her from within the cell, just faintly bathing Starscream's red and blue body with their fire. It allowed her to get a full look at the Decepticon who had once attacked her, and being able to see him again, so close, made her instinctively want to bolt. Allison held her ground, taking only a moment to look the Decepticon over, with some pity with her anger, at what had become of him.

The first thing she noticed, was that the two canons on his arms were gone. _De-weaponized_ was what Prowl had said earlier, and it now made sense seeing Starscream now. Knowing that they weren't just simple machines, it seemed somewhat barbaric to strip off parts and disassemble a member of their own race, and she likened it to a human removing another's fingers to keep them from fighting back. It was... unsettling, but it was also an alien, living-metal race from another planet, and she would never understand some of the more unusual things they did. Regardless, it meant that Starscream wasn't about to shoot her anytime soon, and that was something she could live with.

"Well it appears as if I have time," Starscream cycled air theatrically. "Please, go on."

"I..." Allison hesitated, now thoroughly regretting volunteering to speak to the Decepticon, because truthfully she no longer knew what she wanted to say. There was so much on her mind, yet she found it hard to manufacture those tangled thoughts into something coherent. She had to settle on something. "I want to know _why_..."

"_Why?_" Starscream barked in laughter, and it made Allison flinch as his amusement reminded her so much of the day that she'd been at his mercy. The way he'd spoken to her then, with condescending fascination and pure exhilaration at her helplessness, it felt too familiar with what she was facing now. "I'm afraid I don't know what you mean." Allison had a feeling that he was mocking her, and despite her uncertainty at her own question, he knew exactly what she was talking about. Prowl shifted next to her, causing her to look up in his direction, but he was staring at the Decepticon and made no other outward appearance as to his mood. Allison tried to re-organize her thoughts and continue.

"Why did you do it? Why did you try so hard to kill me... was it really just to hurt Wheeljack?"

"Oh yes. How _is_ Wheeljack? Doing well I presume?" Allison felt herself bristle at this, suddenly feeling protective of Wheeljack, but helpless in that she had no real way to defend him other than her words.

"He's great. A little disappointed that he didn't kill you, but I suppose you have me to thank for that." Allison suddenly felt her fear diminished, and she seized it, not sure how long her bravery would last. "But he's not your concern right now, because from where I'm standing Starscream, you _owe_ me."

The glow of Starscream's eyes was blocked out for a moment as the Decepticon blinked, the hesitation apparent as if he possibly did not know how to respond to such a brazen show of defiance. He tilted his head at her, almost admirably.

"Such big words for such a _tiny_ little fleshling."

"Quit dancing around the subject. Did Megatron ask you to attack us? Or were you just trying to get the Pendulum for yourself, and killing me and Wheeljack was just a bonus?" Allison said quickly, stomach dropping for just a moment as Starscream stood swiftly, eyes bearing down on her like twin locomotives coming at her at once. Somehow, she'd hit a nerve, and Starscream's stooped posture and wings standing on-end looked like a feral cat ready to pounce. If the bars weren't there, Allison had the sense to know that she'd be on the ground in an instant, possibly already dead. The somewhat feeble-looking, wavering cylinders of light suddenly seemed even more pathetic.

"_Megatron_ is living in the past. We no longer have the same goals in mind." For a moment Starscream's eyes softened, and he waved a massive hand in the air. "He is a relic, and the Decepticons blindly follow him into the Pit."

"So you were acting on your own?" Allison was reinforced by what she thought was success, but whether or not any of this was actually useful was still up in the air.

"Megatron did not ask me to join Soundwave. That was of my own actions. If I had gotten to the Pendulum first I would have made much better use of it than that pile of slag. Megatron only wishes to settle his own petty rivalries. I have much greater plans in mind."

"Those are?" Allison pressed, entranced with the Decepticon's splurging and feeling invigorated.

Starscream paused, a wry smile on the curved plates of his mouth as if some understanding dawned upon him. It was at that moment that Allison realized she had finally hit a brick wall, and his enraptured gaze upon her had taken an obscene twist in another direction, one that she did not want to entertain. She felt herself naturally gravitate closer to Prowl, who had still remained mute.

"Allison, _Allison_, what kind of a fool do you take me for? A true master of destruction does not splurge his grand ambitions to anyone with open audios... otherwise, it would no longer be a surprise, now would it?" His gaze shifted towards Prowl, and feeling some disappointment, Allison huffed as the Decepticon turned his eyes back to her, an appraising smile on his face that made her back ache with the memory. "Although it seems as if I do owe you some _satisfaction_... why don't you come closer so I can indulge you?"

Allison felt herself recoil back in revulsion, Wheeljack's warning suddenly very clear in her mind as the urge to bolt suddenly resurfaced. His words, in all their perversion, stung her like a viper striking at her heart, and for a moment her world spun.

Transfixed horror kept her rooted to the spot as Prowl finally moved, making some motion on his arm as the wavering light from the bars blinked out. Instantaneously, Prowl sprung forward like an uncoiled snake, the resonating _crunch_ as his fist collided with the Decepticon's head so loud and horrifying that Allison cried out instinctively in surprise with no real way to stop it.

The Decepticon fell back with a heavy cry of pain, the underlying rage underneath not hard to miss as Starscream fell back against the hard berth with an accompanying crunch as his head hit the surface. Prowl was back at Allison's side instantly, almost as if he had never moved, and he casually re-activated the cell bars with the same motion on his arm. The collected, deliberate action was almost surreal; Prowl's austere manner returned as if it had never left. He merely clasped his hands behind his body like a soldier standing at ready, as Starscream finally managed to roll over, coughing pinkish fluid from his mouth. Oddly enough, the Decepticon was smiling.

"Well, well, Allison, it appears that you don't merely have one Autobot at your beckoned call... how _fortunate_ for you my dear..." Starscream spat, the murky fluid hitting the floor where it softly glowed, pooling like a splatter of oil on the ground. "You should feel privileged. It is not often such an uncharismatic _bore_ as Prowl is seen let off the chain like that. I almost feel honored to have contributed to this little spectacle..."

"We're done here." Prowl finally said, and while his words were abrupt, Allison could feel a distinctive tension that was not there before. Feeling out of sorts, Allison followed Prowl in a rush as he briskly began walking back down the corridor from whence they came. She only glanced back at Starscream long enough to note his following glance, and shaking it off she turned to follow the Autobot back to the surface.


	4. In Memoriam

**Author's Note: This is more of a universe building chapter, where I've tried to create some back-story for Wheeljack so expect some heavy exposition. It isn't entirely canon, and that wasn't my intention, as I was simply trying to create something to fit into my AU. Things will start picking up in the next few chapters, and I will eventually explain what happened between Wheeljack and Starscream, but only when the timing is right. There's a couple new characters introduced, ones that have some connection to their original counterparts with some of my own interpretation mixed in.**

**Usual, I don't own these characters, etc. Thanks for reading!  
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><p>Allison was in somewhat of a trance as she followed Prowl out of the depths of the brig. She was still a little unsettled from her visit with Starscream, and in her lack of clarity she lost track of all the turns they took, eventually giving up on trying to foresee exactly where Prowl was taking her. He was walking swiftly back down the corridor, and she got the vague impression it was somewhere in the rough direction she and Wheeljack had initially visited after her recuperation.<p>

Seeing Prowl go momentarily berserk on Starscream had been quite a shock, and the scenario was still playing out in her head as she realized they had suddenly stopped outside of a large open doorway. It was only when the sounds of voices cut into her awareness that she realized one of them was Wheeljack's.

Prowl turned and looked down at her as he pointed into the open doorway. His expression was indiscernible. It wasn't appraising, but it wasn't angry either; instead it was rather annoyingly neutral. Added to the general feeling that she hadn't actually accomplished what she'd gone down there for in the first place left her feeling incredibly perturbed. If anything, there was a certain finality in his stare that made Allison feel like she was a kid being dropped off at day-care, which annoyed her even more. The other Autobots treated her with a surprising amount of equality, whereas Prowl just made her feel incredibly insecure and unwanted.

"Wheeljack's laboratory. This is where you will stay." There was that shortly-constructed dialog again that infuriated Allison. It was as if words cost money, and Prowl was a curmudgeonly miser who stored his words in a sock, only spending them when it was extremely necessary.

"I..." before Allison could get another word in, Prowl stalked past her and back down the hall. It seemed completely inappropriate to call after him, so she watched him go. It was only when she heard her name being called that Prowl's words finally set in, the realization that she was standing outside of Wheeljack's laboratory suddenly a far more interesting issue than Starscream or Prowl combined.

With some hesitation, she walked into the massive room, the vast size completely overwhelming her. The expansiveness made it hard to get a true feeling of the space around her. This was exacerbated thanks to all the _clutter_. Allison had thought of herself as something of a disorganized mess, but this was taking it to new levels.

Lined along every wall was a vast array of machinations in various degrees of completion. It gave her the immediate impression of a scientist who grew bored of his creations halfway through, tossing them aside as soon as another brilliant notion sprang into his mind. She had no idea if they were failures or simply abandoned, but she was pretty sure all of them were in some way dangerous.

In front of many such "projects" sat even more ventures in different states of size and care, some merely torn open gadgets with spilled wires and cannibalized parts. It was as if Wheeljack had simply been stripping them for supplies, taking bits and pieces and putting them to different uses around the laboratory. Bits of human equipment, easy to spot based on their relative size compared to what must have come from their downed ship, and by proxy _Cybertron_ itself, only broke up the jumble of destruction by their sheer familiarity. What he had been doing with them was unclear, but a great many of them had the same deconstructed look that a lot of the other re-purposed equipment had. Wheeljack was a lot things, but he clearly wasn't wasteful.

Wherever there wasn't some kind of alien, confusing looking machine there was an assortment of large supply crates made of metal. It was clear that they weren't of any human make, because they were far too big to have been of any use that Allison could think of. Large cables hung from the ceiling like vines, and from the walls wherever there wasn't any other mechanical clutter. It was visually noisy, and Allison felt overwhelmed trying to take it all in.

The only thing that really stood out as a true anomaly, comparatively, was a draped cloth over one, seemingly lonely item in the room. It was placed closer to Wheeljack's height, sitting on a kind of mount, and was the only item that stood in an area that was clear. It was almost like it had been purposely placed off to the side and away from everything else to not become lost. It was also the only thing that was covered, so Allison couldn't begin to imagine what it was, but it was obvious that it was the one item in the room that Wheeljack had taken great care to conceal. The haphazard, careless mess everywhere else was a roaring contradiction.

Allison had to duck under, and in some cases climb over tubes and cables that were almost as big as she was. To the Autobots, this wouldn't be an issue as the clutter didn't rise much higher than their ankles. But the smallest wires in the room were almost level with Allison's knees.

It was only after her eyes traveled to the other side after falling over another large cable, did she realize that Wheeljack was not alone in the room. Suddenly feeling very small and conspicuous as she clamored over the obstacles in her path Allison cleared her throat.

"Hi Wheeljack... Hi Sideswipe..."

The red Autobot was leaning against the massive surface of what she assumed was Wheeljack's own worktable, equally cluttered with an assortment of unfamiliar pieces of machinery and metal odds and ends that likely had some intelligible meaning to Wheeljack. Behind the worktable there were more monitors, similar to what she had seen in their control room before, but these ones were darkened. One much bigger monitor was directly behind Wheeljack, and this one in particular looked like some sort of interface terminal, with a long, flat panel that jutted out beneath the screen proper. It looked like a keyboard, except with no actual keys that she could see from her vantage point. Even though she would never comprehend any of it, she was suddenly filled with an immense appreciation for _whatever_ Wheeljack did, because it was clearly complicated.

"I was just keeping _'Jackie_ company here, otherwise he would have locked himself up in here and moped... and that usually ends with something blowing up..." Sideswipe's hand was dangling nonchalantly from the worktable, and his posture was completely at ease. He was smiling at her with all the confidence of the popular boy in school, but Allison was only concerned with this newly acquired knowledge of Wheeljack's nickname as if it was some kind of secret. She looked at Wheeljack questioningly.

"'Jackie?" She asked, trying hard not to laugh as Wheeljack's expression narrowed at her as if daring her to repeat the name.

"Wait, you don't call him that?" Sideswipe asked, his startlingly amused expression so innocent that it was almost charming. The red Autobot stood, eyes glowing and youthfully curious, and Allison found his dopiness something of an endearment.

"I do now..." Allison said teasingly, looking at Wheeljack with a half-smile, and he unsurprisingly did not react in the negative. He simply waved his arms at the other Autobot in a clear indication of their visit being over.

"Yeah, yeah. I have important things to do, Sideswipe." Wheeljack said lightly, grasping the younger Autobot by the shoulder and giving him a gentle shove towards the door. Sideswipe only grinned foppishly as he let the bigger Autobot push him forward.

"Right, I gotcha, I'll give you two some _alone_ time," Sideswipe gave Allison a very obvious wink before he literally stumbled out the door with the heavy _thunks_ of each step as he departed. Allison watched him go, the heavy sigh from Wheeljack making her turn back to him, only to find his back turned to her again.

"Don't pay attention to him..." Wheeljack said, moving something out of her line-of-sight on his table. She could hear the clatter of parts as he seemed to move things aside to make an opening. Finally he turned back to her, a hesitating expectancy in his eyes that was clearly a result of his desire to hear what had happened during her meeting with Starscream. That would come in due time.

"I'm not... really..." Allison said, thankful to be back with someone who made her feel more relaxed. Even as Wheeljack stepped towards her, each step heavy and potentially imposing, she had become accustomed to feeling no fear despite his size.

"The younger Autobots have become.. somewhat _earthenized..." _Wheeljack said, kneeling slowly as he placed a surprisingly gently finger on her shoulder, causing Allison to very briefly sway to the side. She smiled at him, taking comfort in his much more gentle aura.

"You just made that word up..." Allison said, letting her hand rest on his own, much larger finger. Wheeljack was trying to comfort her, but strangely Allison thought that it was actually the other way around, and the Autobot was actually the one that needed comforting. The subtle scrutinizing look in his eyes betrayed the fact that he was trying to read her emotional state to see the result of what had happened.

"Maybe I did, but it's true. They seem to absorb much more of the local culture a little easier than some of us older mechs. They almost seem to enjoy it. Well, most of them do. "

"Oh I don't know, you seem pretty _earthen_ to me... After all you do talk like you've lived in Brooklyn all your life," Allison said with some sarcasm, because she knew it wasn't true, despite it being an oddity that she'd never quite gotten a grasp on. Wheeljack cycled air heavily in exasperation, but there was mirth in his sparkling eyes.

"I don't know why everyone keeps saying that..." Wheeljack said, the smile apparent by the shape of his eyes. His hand moved, palm-up, and the gesture was unmistakable.

"I'm serious. You could open up a pizza shop in the middle of New York and no one would be the wiser."

Wheeljack cocked his head. "What's a pizza?" The manner in which he vocalized such a question was nearly a perfect representation of the stereotypical New Yorker, the words blending together in a seamless fashion.

"It's a type of food, but more importantly, I can't believe you just said that. That's just perfect." Allison said, trying to hold back her laughter.

Wheeljack sighed, giving up on trying to grasp the nature of the joke. "Allison, one day I'm going to have to get you to explain what all of that actually _means_. In the mean time, come on. I want to show you something."

Allison obeyed, not quite sure where she was going as the familiar, floating sensation hit her, her stomach dropping below her as Wheeljack stood with her in his hand. It wasn't pleasant, but he was gentle and slow enough in his movements that she would oblige him. After a few steps that seemed to take minutes he deposited her onto the surface of his table, where Allison finally saw that he had indeed cleared a spot, presumably for her. She found she couldn't help but look at all the bits around her, wondering if he'd moved them for the sake of comfort, or safety.

Allison sat down and crossed her legs without any real notion of what else she should do with herself. Wheeljack placed his hands on the table at both her sides, where he looked down at her from a height that was actually completely foreign to her. The table came up to Wheeljack's waist, and seeing him standing at at this height was oddly intimidating, had she been at a point in her relationship with him to find it that way. It was still somewhat surreal.

"The way I talk, has always been the way I've talked... as it was the way my creator talked, and so on..." he must have sensed the blank look on her face rightfully as the confusion she felt, because he continued. "Okay, so it's a regional thing. I was not originally from Iacon, which was... a bit more conservative. It was full of politicians and nobles-The upper class types. It was the seat of Autobot power. To the north, was Praxus, which is where I was sparked. I guess.. it's like your own regional dialects. It was just the way we talked. After learning English any similarities to your own dialects is a mere coincidence."

"Praxus is the name of a city? That was your home?" Allison asked, setting her hands in her lap. Wheeljack had told her much about the war, and some of what he'd done on Cybertron during that time, but never about anything before that. "I wish I knew what it was like..."

"Hard. It was a cold, isolated area that was partially cut off from the other cities." Wheeljack said abruptly, but despite the briskness in which he spoke, there was a hint of fondness in his words. "Add to that was the fact that I was sparked into an engineering caste where my principal studies were fixing lower city server functions and making sure the city kept running. Not exactly inspiring stuff..."

Wheeljack vented air, but Allison's questioning seemed to have sparked a fire within him. If she could point out one thing that she immediately knew he was good at, it was going into a rant that he would possibly never get out of unless she stopped him. It was as if Wheeljack simply loved to talk and to share information. It was possibly the scientist in him; the need to spread knowledge and experience to those that were oblivious and unaware. This rant however, was one she would let him continue, because his eyes were alight with nostalgia.

"The lower cities were dark, and Primus-forsaken hot. Visibility was slag, because of all the steam vents. But, it was where I learned." Wheeljack continued. "This necessitated the need for advanced heat regulation in our physiology for those who worked in those conditions." Wheeljack pointed at the panels at his head, the ones that Allison had first mistaken for ears and had only been embarrassed to learn that they weren't. He had mentioned to her before that they vented heat from his "processor," or what she assumed was his brain, and he had only modified them to blink when he spoke and react to his emotions. This, he had seemed to just do for _fun._

Admittedly, Allison had assumed that Cybertronians had the capability to simply be born with a collection of knowledge based on their function, but as Wheeljack explained to her, that wasn't so. It was true that they had an inherent base-knowledge of certain skills and traits, and they could certainly download packets of information (knowing English was one such thing), but for the most part they still needed to put skills into practice before mastery.

Wheeljack as Allison learned, had existed in a working caste, and hadn't been granted many opportunities for higher education when he was a "youngling." He had been "sparked" as his creator's apprentice, but also out of a hope to pass along something better then what he had been able to provide. The closest comparison Wheeljack could make was to a human mechanic. He had studied under this creator and was forced to learn things hands-on: how to build and create, and maintain all of the systems that kept Praxus running, and by and large, Iacon itself.

"Even though Praxus was a very large energon hub that Iacon depended on to run, we were not often resupplied. We often had to make-do with the resources we had, and that usually meant being really, really creative." Wheeljack said, his glowing eyes moving about as he spoke, enthralled with his recollections.

That seemed to make sense to Allison, as it explained how good Wheeljack seemed to be at being able to make things seemingly out of nothing. It helped put a purpose to the haphazardly torn apart odds and ends in the room, and seemed to give Wheeljack something of an advantage having to make do with whatever earth had to offer in terms of materials. He'd clearly learned how to improvise because of this, and that must have made him vastly valuable to the Autobots; maybe even the Decepticons as well.

"Hold on a moment, I'd like to just clarify something. You said that nobody _made_ you, but you keep saying _creator. _That makes it sound like you were built, or manufactured. I'm assuming that's not exactly accurate, so I'm going to sound really dumb for a minute and ask you to explain that to me."

"That's not dumb-sounding at all. It's a tough concept to grasp." Wheeljack took a small intake of air, as he thought about how best to explain it. "While it's true to say we aren't _manufactured_, as you put it, there is some truth into the concept that we're built. We originate from something called a protoform shell, which themselves are built by revered Artisans. The myth states that they are constructs of Primus' essence, but really I think they're just really old, very skilled mechs. The protoform shells house sparks, which itself is a natural entity that isn't created, but also extracted from the essence of Primus. The two are joined, and become one with our bodies."

"So your bodies aren't just shells, right?" Allison tapped Wheeljack's chest plates. "I mean, you're not a golem are you?"

"No, we're not. While our bodies can be replaced if we are heavily damaged, it is a difficult process because our sparks are deeply intertwined with our shells. Our life-force runs deep within us."

Allison found herself entranced, and while it almost felt like she was in school all over again, it was not a class she would have ever thought to skip out on. Learning about Wheeljack's past, which had always been something of a mystery to her, was something she thought of often. She'd told him much of her own, very short, life before meeting him, which had only included the death of her mother and abandonment of her father. The only thing of note that hadn't directly involved her parents had been her professional involvement with Herbert Arkeville himself, a relationship which had inevitably brought Wheeljack to her in the first place.

"Axleon had worked hard and tirelessly to have the credits for a protoform. He petitioned for many, many cycles to be granted the opportunity to have an audience with the Primes and have the shell sparked. The Autobot council finally approved the petition after his quick-thinking averted a meltdown of Praxus' main core generator. I guess they saw value in that." Wheeljack had continued. "They finally agreed, and with a femme they were granted the opportunity to spark a protoform, so here I am, and the rest is history as you would say. Starblaze worked closely with Axleon, and they agreed on that mutual partnership."

"So Arcee is definitely a girl then," Allison noted. "Does that mean she was, ah... I'm sorry, but I'm just going to use the word 'built' for now. But... does this mean Arcee was built for some kind of purpose? I look at you, Ratchet and the others, and then I look at Arcee, and I can clearly see that she is..."

"Different," Wheeljack said, nodding. Allison nodded in return.

"Maybe I'm over thinking it, but... your race doesn't reproduce like our does. So I have to admit that I'm curious as to..." She stopped short in her sentence, frowning. "You know what, it's a stupid question. I'm sorry. There doesn't have to be a reason, right?"

Wheeljack shrugged. "There is one, if you want me to tell you."

Allison nodded. In truth, it was something that had crossed her mind a few times. Wheeljack had always seemed very male, and initially she'd just attributed that to her own biological tendency to place gender on something based on observations even if it wasn't really there. He certainly sounded male, he _looked_ male, and he had always exuded a sense of masculinity in his mannerisms and even his protective behavior around her. Wheeljack and Ratchet had made it very clear that their race didn't reproduce and have physical relations like humans did, so she had simply associated that with a baser instinctive need to be a dominant protector. Truthfully, she didn't entirely mind.

Then Arcee had come along, and to Allison's eyes, she was very distinctly female. It wasn't entirely difficult to miss just by looking at her, but Allison had never had the courage to outright come out and ask anything about it.

"Yeah," she said. "I'd like that."

"It might not actually be what you think," Wheeljack said teasingly, heaving a great sigh as he placed his gesturing hand back on the surface next to her. "You see, Axleon was sparkbonded to a femme named Starblaze. The two don't have to be sparkbonded, but a femme is necessary. Most of the time, a pairing in that sense is arranged through more... eh, contractual means. It was simply a coincidence that they were together, but that made it something more important to them." He paused, reading Allison's blank expression as she tried to process how to ask him to go into more detail without sounding crass.

"Admittedly, I think little Wheeljack spawn running around would be rather adorable, and maybe a little bit dangerous."

"The Matrix of... wait... what?" Wheeljack looked thoroughly confused.

"I'm sorry," Allison said, teasingly. "I didn't mean to distract you. Go on."

"Ah... right. I told you Optimus carries the Matrix of Leadership. That gives the protoform sentience, it bonds the two halves of the joining to give it consciousness. Otherwise, if activated it would simply be feral. Maybe a drone would be a better term. The protoform acquires base programming from the creator mech, which is basically a genetic collection of unique baser traits, while a femme generates a sparkling, which is a fragmented piece of her own spark. This also contains a specific portion of genetic coding that is unique to her, but is also necessary. You essentially can't do it without a femme. Still with me?"

Allison nodded. "I think so. So the original spark is created from Primus, and then the femme adds some special coding, right?"

"That's the general gist, yes, but the specifics are still something of a mystery even to us. At this point, a pair will meet with the Primes once a petition is granted and present the protoform, where the two halves will be put in place before the Matrix joins them. After this, some of the code is re-arranged. That part is not all that different from organic DNA replication. That's why we are not mere copies of one another, just as you aren't." Wheeljack looked to be thinking how to properly explain it without delving into scientific terms that he knew Allison wouldn't understand.

"The Matrix allows for the arrangement of coding and creates a behavioral protocol that is essential our sentience. Because of our somewhat infinite lifespans, creating new Cybertronian life is strictly regulated, and is why the Matrix is so important to keep out of the wrong hands. With the right amount of protoform shells, one could create an army."

"I don't see many protoforms around, so I guess that means no Wheeljack babies anytime soon?" Allison said, her mind going places it probably shouldn't have. _What am I even _saying_?_

"What is your fascination with trouble? That would be a _terrible_ idea." Wheeljack said with some sarcasm, but she knew he was playing along.

"Oh... I don't know..." Allison said wryly. She wasn't sure why she had a sudden fixation with seeing little baby Wheeljacks scuttling around blowing stuff up with cute little baby canons. There was just something about that image that was suddenly very appealing to her, her curiosity getting the best of her own brain.

"I don't know that I would be the best mech for the job. I'm not sure that I would be a good enough mentor to raise them, plus the environment is too hazardous. It would never be allowed."

"I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit," Allison said, but it was what she didn't say that was actually on her mind. It could have been the paternal pedestal she'd put him on in her own mind, seeing him as a protector more than anything else. It was clear that, for all their differences, Wheeljack clearly devoted all his effort to keeping his family and, by extension her, safe. His doubts about his own abilities seemed unfounded, and she could attest to that with more than her fair share of experience around him. While she wasn't about to go out and buy curtains or anything, she could easily see him being a wonderful father figure for little protoforms. Certainly he'd be the best mentor one could possibly hope for. Strong, protective and with a keen interest in sharing knowledge and experience.

"I know what you're thinking, and you need to stop. Now." Wheeljack cleared his throat, appearing embarrassed. "I guess, if I had any inclination to, _which I do not_, I could potentially make something similar to a protoform shell. But the materials on earth are hardly appropriate, and would not make an entirely durable mech. Most of the remaining protoforms were smuggled off of Cybertron near the start of the war with the Magnus Expedition, but nobody heard from them after that. I suppose in the end that might be for the best. It means that the Decepticons have no real reason to come after the Matrix, _or_ Arcee, as she is one of the last remaining femmes." Wheeljack said, now slightly more subdued.

Wheeljack's back wing panels twitched with what might have been nerves. "Although if the protoforms were to magically show up somewhere, then we would have another layer of problems to deal with. I wouldn't put it past Megatron to try and build a newly sparked army, or at the very least, a collection of drones to pad out his troops that already outnumber us greatly. Although it would take a great deal of time for them to reach maturity. We aren't sparked at our full size."

"What happened to your... ah, parents?" Allison wondered, trying to imagine Wheeljack being small and failing at it. An idea that they naturally grew gave more credence to the idea that they were living, metal organisms, but there was nothing on earth that she could compare it to.

Wheeljack looked away, and for a moment Allison thought that she'd hit a nerve. He sighed again, the hot air hitting her in the face as it made her hair move. Allison watched him sadly as he turned back to her, suddenly feeling sorry that she'd brought anything up, because she had a feeling it wasn't good.

"Praxus was a neutral city. While a majority sympathized with the original Decepticon cause, it did not agree with their violent methods. As such, it inevitably allied with the Autobots and began supplying the Autobot front with materials. Unfortunately Megatron took this as a great offense and bombarded the city. It was so far outside of the Decepticon territory that the city was completely unprepared, and as a result..." he stopped, perhaps thinking how to appropriately word what he was about to say. "Well, it was leveled. So much life... gone to waste..." Wheeljack seemed to no longer be speaking directly to her as he shook his head. Allison could read between the lines and gather that Wheeljack's creators had been among those who had met their demise.

"I'm sorry, Wheeljack." Allison said, finding nothing else to really say. She drew patterns on the table with her fingers, finding it hard to look at him. She was no stranger to death, but seeing Wheeljack sad was such an out of place oddity.

"Why? You were not there, Allison. It was nobody's fault but the Decepticons.. and in some way the Autobots for being careless I suppose." He said, vocal panels blinking methodically, despite the emotion in his voice.

"I know. But I can't help but feel sorry. I wish I could have been there for you." She said, looking at him. Surprisingly Wheeljack was smiling, panels glowing a slight pink which was the Autobot's form of a blush.

"Then for that I am grateful... but I learned long ago to... cope. Besides, I wasn't there when it happened. I guess I should consider that fortunate. I had already transferred to Iacon, as I had been given the opportunity to actually study engineering and physics at the science academy there: Something my creator had been very proud of. Perhaps being in Iacon and somewhat isolated from it at the time, it was easier for me to come to terms with it. I could bury myself in my studies and projects that allowed me to mentally escape from what was happening." Wheeljack said. Allison sighed heavily at this, and looked at Wheeljack with some trepidation. The idea of Wheeljack shunning the world around him, to mentally and emotionally block out what was going on by burying himself in work, just seemed so very... well, _Wheeljack_.

"I suppose death is just too common then."

"It was not a complete loss I guess. The bombardment stretched Megatron's resources too thin, and cut off from his own supply, the Autobots were able to drive him back. It was too late for most, but at least some were saved." Wheeljack said. He was looking skyward, and while she knew he probably was not praying, she wondered if he was recalling some memory long past; Perhaps an emotion he'd felt on a planet that was now so very far away.

"Anyway, let's not talk about this. I actually have something for you..." Wheeljack said as he raised a finger, turning past the monitor and keyboard terminal before disappearing around another immense mechanical device, this one actually in some state of normalcy. He reemerged a moment later with a round, metal disc in his hands, and presented it to her proudly.

"Bean!" Allison lept up from her sitting position and rushed forward to grab the disc from Wheeljack's hand. Bean was a drone that Wheeljack had built as a tool, but after it had helped Allison slip into a bank undetected to break into a safety deposit box, she had affectionately named it. She had since come to the conclusion that it wasn't as non-sentient as Wheeljack made it out to be, or at least didn't appear to be. After Starscream had attacked her, she thought she'd lost Bean. Apparently someone had gone back for the drone.

Wheeljack had never quite understood why Allison had named it, and assigned a gender to it, but he'd played along with her anyway and let her carry on.

"Still needs a few adjustments, but nearly good-as-new." Wheeljack said with some amount of personal triumph in his voice. "Although, I think it will be best if Bean remains in the lab from now on. Otherwise Ratchet may get a hold of it," Wheeljack said slyly, and the underlying meaning beneath his words did not go unnoticed.

"Yeah, you're right." In truth, that was probably the better option anyway. Bean was something unusual to look at when it wasn't in its stasis form, and had developed a somewhat curious appetite for watching other beings. A little crustacean-like drone following her around all the time and shoving its crustacean-like optics into the other Autobots' faces would probably be seen as a nuisance. At the end of the day, Bean belonged to Wheeljack anyway. Having it in his lab was a good way for him to keep an eye on it.

"You can visit..._Bean_..." Wheeljack paused, as if he was having trouble saying the name Allison had given the drone. He made a sound similar to a cough, his tone shifting. "Speaking of visits..." His expression turned severe as he returned to his sentinel position in front of her on the worktable. As Allison had been half-expecting Wheeljack to bring this up eventually, it wasn't a surprise, other than the amount of time it had taken him.

"I see. So was this some sort of bribe to get me to talk then? How unusually transparent of you. You're not normally this subtle." Allison said that with some sarcasm, teasing him, but as Wheeljack's expression did not waver she grew hot, blushing at the sudden awkwardness. "I'm sorry, that was mean." Realizing her insensitive blunder, Allison set the inert form of Bean down on the table surface next to her. "You want to talk about Starscream now?"

"What did he say?" Wheeljack said, his expression softening into something more akin to hesitant fear. Deep in his mind he wanted to hear what had transpired. Like all great secrets, he had to hear all the information. Emotionally, however, he was worried as to what he would find out.

Allison tried to recall the scant few minutes down there; Minutes that had seemed to stretch on forever, but she had to process them into something coherent to say to him. "I... don't think I got much out of him that we didn't already know. I don't think he was acting under Megatron's orders... Megatron apparently didn't even send him. It's almost like he'd had other motivations from the start, and had only pretended to be working with Soundwave," Allison said, trying to piece through her memories from before, conveniently leaving out the specific details of exactly _how_ Starscream had divulged that information. She looked at Wheeljack expectantly, and wasn't surprised to see his ridged brow raised, like he _knew_. But then he always knew when-

"You're lying again."

"I'm not lying, Wheeljack. He didn't really tell me anything else. Honestly."

"I know Starscream, and I know that he would not have shared this with you casually. He has a way with words... he would not have misused such an opportunity to get under your skin." Wheeljack's hands were back on the table close to her, and Allison placed a hand on the heated metal that passed for his skin. It was unusually warm, something she had taken to mean that he was agitated. Wanting to comfort him, she tried to instill some measure of calmness just with her touch.

"He's kind of perverse." Allison said, biting on her tongue as she realized that wasn't exactly a comforting thing to tell him. "I mean, I don't know why. I think he just likes seeing my reaction when he says things like that. Oh, he made mild threats here and there about breaking out, and about not _holding back _next time he shoots at me, but I took those as hollow taunts and nothing more."

Wheeljack nodded. "Starscream's always been rather recalcitrant. I think that's the only reason Megatron kept him around. He was probably just as fascinated by him and seeing what he would do as he was untrusting. To a degree, at any rate."

Oddly, Allison found herself smile. "I think he really, _really_ pissed off Prowl. He...Prowl that is... _turned off _the cell and punched Starscream in the face. Violently."

Wheeljack chuckled, and it was a much more pleasant sound than the reverberating growl that had been subtly emitting from his chest while she spoke. Allison had gotten used to the ambient noises his body made like a reactive machine; auditory emotional reactions that to the untrained ear would just sound like random electrical sounds. Allison had gotten too used to Wheeljack's moods and his visual and audible cues to be fooled.

"Did he now? Starscream must have really done something to tick him off. Prowl isn't known to lose his composure easily," Wheeljack said loftily. "That's something of a rare privilege. Too bad I wasn't there to see that." The subtle satisfaction in his voice was noted. Allison wasn't sure how to feel about all the violence that seemed to be so casual, but she knew Wheeljack's attitude about Starscream was the result of eons of fighting and emotional turmoil. Not excluding what had happened to _her_ when he had shot her. She supposed that animosity and lack of sympathy would be natural, and she had to be sensitive to that given her lack of experience. Had she not stopped him before, he had come very, very close to killing the Decepticon-had wanted to-and that was something she kept in the back of her mind.

Wheeljack's laughter died almost as quickly as it started. "Wait a minute... Starscream didn't..."

"No," Allison said, shaking her head. "He didn't do anything to me." Wheeljack eyed her suspiciously. "He just spoke is all." Before she could repeat Starscream's words, Wheeljack held up a hand to instill quiet. Allison stopped mid-sentence and bit her lip, wondering if there was something to be concerned about, but Wheeljack's face was one of calm. His gaze went blank for a moment, indicating that he was speaking internally with someone.

"You have a visitor," Wheeljack finally said as he shifted his attention back to her. Allison had instinctively looked up from her perch, searching for a new Autobot face. She had to lean over to peer around Wheeljack's massive frame to see the open doorway. Initially she was curious, but when she saw the yellow and black body appear in the doorway she had to take an extra moment to realize that it was not Sunstreaker walking in. After the initial impression of distaste she'd gotten from him, she wasn't entirely sure she was ready to have a conversation with him just yet.

After her immediate misconception had cleared and she realized it was just another Autobot with very similar coloring, she was able to ascertain that this Autobot was surprisingly small.

"Hey, Wheeljack, you're back finally," the Autobot said, in a voice that was light and youthful, another oddity that was going to take some time to get used to. Wheeljack had always had a certain degree of lightness in his voice, but there was an underlying intelligence in every word he spoke that gave the impression of a wise, old man with experience. Ratchet was that plus an extra thousand or so years. So far, the other Autobots she'd met had all sounded very young, which was a very startling thing to come across. Prowl and Optimus Prime were the only exceptions. Prowl hadn't exactly sounded old, but the formal candor of every word did not really give off any impression of age at all. Prime had a sagely quality to him that carried an other-wordly softness, and any hardness there seemed to lurk below the surface only to be brought out when needed.

Wheeljack had turned, exposing Allison into view much to her initial displeasure, but after a moment she relaxed. This particular Autobot was not huge in comparison to Wheeljack with initial inspection, and while he was still standing some good distance away it looked like he would come up to about the middle of Wheeljack's chest. He was definitely larger than Rumble and Frenzy had been, but she didn't think any size smaller would have made those two any less of a problem.

The Autobot paused when he saw her, and his eyes flashed for a moment with what must have initially been surprise. A half-smile slid across his face as his eyes softened, but before he could say anything Wheeljack was speaking.

"I've _been_ back, but Ratchet's had me locked up in the infirmary for the past week with Allison because he seemed to think we were going to fall apart," Wheeljack jabbed a thumb in her direction, making her throw a cautionary glance his way. "How have things been Bumblebee?"

Being already used to the bizarre, literal translations of their Cybertronian names into English, she couldn't help but be just a little bit confused by this one. Wheeljack to some degree made sense, but Bumblebee did not in the least seem like it would fit any translation format at all. Allison somehow doubted that Cybertron had any insectoid equivalent, so she partially wondered if it was a nick-name. After all, this Autobot was yellow and black much like Sunstreaker.

Despite his size, Bumblebee was covered in armored bulk that might have made him look larger than he really was. He had a flat, broad chest with two vertical black stripes that ran down the center with an Autobot symbol between them. The rest of him was a various mixture of black and yellow, mostly the latter, but the more obvious features were the yellow horns on either side of his head. They appeared to be mere extensions of his head, but their purpose would have been anyone's guess. It didn't seem appropriate to ask him what they were for. It would have been like asking Prowl what the purpose of the door-wings on his back were, and oddly enough, Bumblebee had similar adornments on his back as well: two yellow car doors sprouting out from his back like wings. They could be decorations for all she knew, much like a human wore jewelry or makeup.

It was while she was looking at these wings when she realized that Bumblebee had something else on his shoulder, and this something was decidedly more organic. It was a human girl.


	5. In the Name of Science

**Author's note: Another short chapter. The first chapters are mostly about introduction and character building, but the main plot will begin to show itself in the next few chapters. Some mention of new characters too. There's a canon character here who I've changed a bit and aged a little from her actual appearances, and I'm sure that will be obvious once it appears.**

**Usual ownership stuff. I don't own any of these characters.  
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><p>The girl was a tiny thing, with olive skin and dark hair peppered with streaks of red. She was practically attached to the side of Bumblebee's head like she was a part of it, and he seemed to be moving with very controlled care so as to ensure that the young girl didn't fall. There didn't seem to be any danger of this however, as she was gripping so tight to a rounded portion of Bumblebee's head that Allison didn't think a tornado would pull her off. She was also watching Allison with an open expression of surprise, before finally the girl clamored up further onto the Autobot's head, where she grabbed one of his horns and yanked. Allison watched with muted horror as the girl fearlessly climbed around on the Autobot with seemingly no concern for her own safety, and what was even more curious was that Bumblebee was letting her do it.<p>

It reminded Allison of when she was younger; that age of impermeable determination when the entire world was just waiting to be explored, and no amount of danger was enough to penetrate that veil of invincibility that children so inherently believed in. Allison couldn't help but wonder when it was that she shed her own naive sense of indomitable spirit. _Probably around the time I started working_, she thought, bitterly. That was about the time unicorns and fairies and cartoons about glam rock stars lost their magic and the cold hard reality of adulthood stepped on her dreams. Of course, the recent escapades she had been involved in had sort of brought a return to the sense of wonder she used to harbor, though it was considerably harder to revel in celestial majesty when it was pointing a 7-foot canon in your face.

Bumblebee winced as the girl pulled, but he made no effort to stop her other than a slight raise of his hand. Wheeljack and him had been engaging in casual conversation prior to this, but it stopped when Bumblebee seemed to glance towards the side where his human passenger was, eyes softening for a moment before he spoke.

"I forgot, Sari wants to ask you something," Bumblebee said, and the girl, whom now had a face to go with the name that Allison had heard tossed around before, gave Bumblebee a triumphant pat on the head. Allison had somewhat expected her to be a human, but she hadn't expected her to be a _child _of all things_. _While it wasn't really any of her business, there was something mildly disconcerting to see what looked to be a 12 year old girl walking indifferently around giant, metal, alien beings, apparently comfortable in treating them like some sort of jungle-gym. After what Allison had been through, imagining a child being in the same situation was not pleasant. Surely, this was something the Autobot's had considered. Likely, she never left the base.

"She can ask me anything she likes," Wheeljack said nonchalantly. His hand was still resting on the table next to Allison, but he was turned to the other two in the room.

"Yeah, but she's afraid of you," Bumblebee said, before he glanced at Allison and his eyes flickered again with what might have been regret. Perhaps he was acknowledging the fact that Allison had somewhat been ignored up until this point, but truthfully she didn't particularly mind. It was far too interesting to watch the two Autobots engage in their own conversation. "I'm sorry, I was being rude. I should have introduced myself. You're Allison, right? I'm Bumblebee," he said, pointing at his own chest. He winced as another heavy knock was bestowed upon his head by the girl on his shoulder.

"I am _not_ afraid of him, thank you very much. And you forgot to introduce me!" The girl whined, and she turned to look at Allison squarely. "I'm Sari!" she said, but she did not point to her chest, obviously finding it wise to not remove her grip from the plates of Bumblebee's head. "Finally, another _person_ around here. All these robots get so boring sometimes... work, work, work, that's all they do... Seriously, you'd think sentient robotic organisms from space would be far more interesting, but no! They have to stomp around the base and do adult-type stuff. Even their patrols are dull." She rolled her eyes, knowingly. "You'd think more would happen, but..." She sighed, dramatically. "Nothing ever does."

Feeling a little overwhelmed by the girl's exuberance, Allison looked at Wheeljack for some type of direction, but he only passed a quick glance her way before shrugging. His eyes were shining, like he was taking great pleasure out of the conversation. Allison would hardly consider the Autobots _boring_, but she'd only really spent time with Ratchet and Wheeljack, and most of that time had been spent running for their lives. 'Boring' was the last thing she'd call her experiences.

Hi," Allison said. "I... can't say I've been bored yet, but then again I was rather busy getting shot at." Sari's eyes lit up with sudden, powerful interest. Allison felt herself affronted at the girl's apparent interest. While getting shot at was certainly energizing to some extent, she wouldn't exactly consider it something to get excited about.

"Lucky! They _never_ let me leave the base, I've only gotten to go on patrol a few times...and it's always sooooo booooring," Sari said with gusto, and Bumblebee made a face close to disgust, like he was disappointed. He raised a hand toward the girl and waved a pointed finger at her.

"For good reason, too," Bumblee said. "There's nothing _lucky _about getting shot at. You don't belong on the battlefield, and you'd only get hurt." There was a glimmer of concern in his eyes that was recognizable to Allison, because it was the way Wheeljack looked at her. "I would never forgive myself if I let you get stepped on." Something changed then in Bumblebee's eyes, and it was a barely transparent ripple of _something. _Allison was far too familiar with it after spending so much time with Wheeljack. Allison's stomach dropped as something clicked in her mind, almost missing the next part of the conversation as she realized that somehow, Bumblebee was bonded to this little girl.

"He's right you know," Sari said, nodding, her voice loud enough to bring Allison back into the conversation. "That mean old Megatron would step on me. _SQUISH!_" Sari slapped her palms together to emphasis the thought. "Like a pancake. Or maybe a bug. And then all my guts would come out."

"Oh...my..." Allison said, feeling a little queasy.

Bumblebee laughed; he'd obviously gotten used to the little girl's dramatic displays. "Well, let's not get any ideas, shall we? I need you intact! You're no use to me spread out all over the floor."

Allison looked up at Wheeljack, her face a little pale. "Are they always like this?"

Wheeljack shrugged. "Pretty much."

Sari stuck out her tongue and made a gagging sound. Allison had to admit she was a little surprised at how lightly the girl seemed to take the notion of being crushed under Megatron's feet, and even seemed to be disappointed that she would never get the opportunity. For a moment Allison almost envied the girl's ignorance, but that attitude disappeared immediately as her thoughts drifted back to Starscream. Those moments weren't something that could be easily forgotten.

"Oh hey, Wheeljack! That reminds me; I want to ask you something!" Sari finally asked, directing her question towards Wheeljack in an echoing statement of what Bumblebee had said earlier. Her tone of voice bounced into various degrees of enthusiasm with each sentence. The dramatic shift in the conversational tone was like a complete u-turn, and Allison had to note that the light-heartedness Bumblebee seemed to embody must have been the only way he was able to keep up with the girl. From the small glimpse she'd had so far at his personality, there seemed to be some shared sense of mischief that she got from him. Maybe that was why the two got along so well. That said, there was definitely a sense of maturity she got from the yellow Autobot that seemed like the perfect counterbalance to the relationship.

Wheeljack was silent, expectantly waiting for the girl to continue from atop the yellow Autobot's shoulder. She was biting her lip, perhaps trying to figure out what to say. Or maybe she was deliberately leaving the question hanging for the sake of being dramatic. It wasn't something Allison would put past the young girl.

"I was wondering if you would help me build a volcano!" Sari finally said, her words spilling out in a tumble like candies falling from a jar. She spoke so fast, that the silence that followed made Allison think that Wheeljack hadn't understood her, because it had certainly taken Allison a second to process what had been said.

"A volcano?" Wheeljack finally asked, but Allison could sense the confusion in his voice as it was his turn to look at her. Allison knew the girl didn't mean a real volcano, but that was probably lost on Wheeljack. "That would require an unusual amount of resources and time. I really don't think we have the capacity to fulfill such a large request. I mean, I guess I could look around to-"

Bumblebee closed his eyes and seemed to sigh, shifting just slightly. "What she _means_, Wheeljack, is that she has to build a _model_ volcano for a science assignment. We've made a few small attempts ourselves, but so far we haven't gotten it to work."

"Bumblebee thought maybe if you mixed ice-cream and apple cider together, it might make a realistic looking lava flow. All it did was make a mess all over the table. Then Ratchet got mad." Sari added, and she actually seemed rather pleased with this.

Bumblebee scratched the back of his head, absently. "Clearly I'm not an expert, so I thought that if you maybe had time..."

Wheeljack's eyes enlarged at the sheer notion of scientific enterprise. "Of course I have time!" he exclaimed. "Well... I have plenty to do... but there's always time for scientific endeavors, wouldn't you say?" Silence followed as nobody seemed to know how to respond to him. He didn't miss a beat as he disappeared around the corner again where he continued the conversation, this time seemingly one-sided. "A volcano, yes, that will require ammonium dichlorate-wait, that's toxic, not going to work. Primus! Why didn't you ask me this sooner!" There was a tremendous crash as something large must have fallen making everyone jump, followed by the loud clattering of various objects falling to the floor in random intervals; likely being thrown around if the state of the rest of the lab was any indication to Wheeljack's methods of organization. "I think I have vinegar in here somewhere... although I have not done any baking recently, so I may be low on sodium bicarbonate-"

"Baking soda," Allison muttered under her breath, explaining for the benefit of the other two in the room, who seemed to not know what they were supposed to do with themselves as the destruction out of their line-of-sight continued. "Though, where he got that from, along with the vinegar, is a question I'd like to ask."

"I'd like to know _why_ he has them," Bumblebee added.

"Although if you want it to be _really_ authentic," Wheeljack continued from his hiding place, "you might want to add a little extra aluminum filings to make it spark-"

"N-No!" Bumblebee held up his hand as if to ward off an oncoming storm. Sari seemed torn between laughter and terror without knowing what exactly Wheeljack was talking about. "That won't be necessary..."

"Sparks! I like it!" Wheeljack exclaimed. "But why settle for mere sparks when we can physically replicate an actual volcanic eruption? I mean, we have the tools! We can build it!"

"Um..." Allison said finally deciding at that moment that she should probably intervene. "Wheeljack, I don't think it needs to be _that _extravagant. This is just a school science project, and she's just a kid..."

Sari scoffed. "I'm twelve!" she said, as if that was some kind of debate.

Allison stood, walking to the edge of the table and tried to peek around to see Wheeljack, but her view was completely obstructed by machinery. "You can just help her put baking soda and vinegar into a paper-mache pile with red food coloring... and pray."

"Pffffft!" Wheeljack spluttered from somewhere within the mess. "That's hardly authentic."

"It's authentic enough for a school project. I don't know how things are done on Cybertron, but down here on Earth, we have to keep things simple. At least when it comes to school projects. You need to scale it down."

"Tell that to the next volcano that erupts in your neighbourhood," Wheeljack quipped. "I'm sure it'll appreciate your economy-sized expectations."

Allison smiled and rolled her eyes. Wheeljack was clearly enjoying himself, and she couldn't bring herself to spoil his fun. "Fine, but keep the explosions to a minimum, _please_. I'm sure Sari's class doesn't need a new sunroof."

There was another tremendous clatter as more metal clangs and crashes followed. It finally stopped, and Wheeljack emerged with an armful of what looked like scrap metal. "Fine, no massive eruptions. But it's still going to be spectacular."

"But I like sparks!" Sari said, instilling a startled wheeze from Bumblebee.

"No," the yellow Autobot said with some restraint. "Not these kind of sparks."

"I'm not going to incinerate the school," Wheeljack said, undaunted. He set the pile of scrap pieces onto the table where the pile toppled over. Allison had to dance out of the way to avoid the sharp ends of metal that slid along the worktable. "Honest!" Wheeljack had a hand over the center of his chest. Allison huffed, and looked over at Bumblebee who seemed to be out of words. Sari was bouncing up and down with excitement, as if the prospect of blowing up the school was something she had been hoping would happen.

"Don't let him add aluminum filings," Bumblebee said, looking squarely at Allison with a lop-sided grin. Allison nodded at him, even though she suspected Wheeljack would find _some_ way to add something "extra" to the volcano on the sly when she wasn't looking. "Thanks Wheeljack. Sorry we don't have more time to talk Allison, but I have to take Sari to school..." Sari made a face at this, but it went unnoticed. Bumblebee continued. "She's going to get started right after, so if you aren't on monitor duty yet Wheeljack..."

"I'll be here. Don't have other engagements until tomorrow..." Wheeljack waved a hand absently as he turned back to his table and hunkered over the pile of metal scraps, now apparently absorbed in whatever task he'd set himself to do. Sari waved and called out as she left.

"I'll be back to check up on you later, Wheeljack!" she called out. "Do what needs to be done!"

Allison watched as Bumblebee left with the girl on her shoulder, and it was a few moments before she spoke.

"So... that's Sari..." Allison said, while Wheeljack had begun organizing the scraps of metal into different piles on the table. It looked like he was pairing them based on size and overall shape, but as they were all just distorted scraps of metal to her untrained eye, she couldn't be certain. "She's very young."

Wheeljack looked at her incredulously. "I could say the same about you," he said, the humor apparent in his eyes. He was poking fun at her age again, which was just a blip in time compared to Wheeljack's very lengthy life up to this point.

"Ter her, that's funny, but I mean she's a child..." Allison paused, choosing her words. "It's really none of my business, but she's really young... and she seems rather casual about your war. I don't really think she understands what kind of danger that poses," Allison said. "Although I guess I shouldn't talk. It's not like I can really offer much should the Decepticons attack, so I can't really claim to be all that useful either..." Wheeljack looked at her with eyes that were soft. "You know what I mean... I'd only get in the way," Allison amended.

"You're correct in your assessment of her attitude, and you already know how I feel about your usefulness around here. I don't need you to build us a replacement space ship for me to feel you're important," Wheeljack said. "Actually, in Sari's case I admit she was kind of a bother at first. You've seen the energy she has. Surprisingly deep for one so tiny. She particularly got on Ratchet's nerves a few times."

"Wheeljack, a passing butterfly could get on Ratchet's nerves."

"Random, but true. Though, to be fair, she was kind of excessive. Always climbing on things, or mechs, and never really leaving you alone. It did get somewhat...tiresome."

"And that changed because of Bumblebee?" Allison guessed.

Wheeljack cocked his head, puzzled. "What do you mean?"

"Wheeljack...please. I met him for 10 minutes and I could see it all over his face. The way he looks at her is far too familiar to me. I sniffed out Ratchet's secret, and I can sniff out Bumblebee's, so I know he's bonded to her." Ratchet hadn't exactly told her that he was bonded to Arcee, Allison had simply guessed by watching their body language. They seemed to have a certain look in their eyes when they spoke to one another, and their movements were soft and very restrained in a tender way. Wheeljack had started behaving around her the same way before she knew, but now Allison could see it clearly wherever it was. It was probably just more pronounced because they were so big.

"And I'm noticing a pattern here with the females. Are we more effective than males? Or do you just find us that irresistible?"

Wheeljack chuckled at this, and his eyes narrowed with what must have been a cheeky grin beneath his battle mask. "An interesting observation, actually, but I can assure you, that's entirely a coincidence." Allison knew it was, but she felt the need to take a jab at him. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker shared the same bond, even though theirs was a little different. They were two pieces of the same spark, and shared a very instinctive, natural connection between them that was nearly the same as any other sparkbond, if not stronger.

"I'll take your word for it," Allison said, coyly. She decided to use the moment as a chance to bring the conversation back to its original topic. "So... where did Sari come from, anyway?"

"She is the daughter of Issac Sumdac, who is our civilian liaison with the government agency keeping us a secret." Wheeljack paused, and he looked at her. "It was entirely by accident that she found out about us."

"That seems to be a theme around here, doesn't it?" Allison said loftily. She knew the name of course. Sumdac was a major manufacturer of electronic and computer products for general public and military use. She remembered Arkeville mention them from time to time, as they'd had contracts with them in the past to debug some of their robotics software. It was a multi-billion-dollar company, constantly contracted by the government to develop just about everything from office software to military-grade weapon development, giving it essentially limitless resources. Sumdac was known for being surprisingly open about his governmental partnership-to a point. A great many things went unmentioned; the Autobot's obviously one of them. It came as no surprise, however, that Sumdac would have plenty on hand to cater to whatever the Autobots needed.

"This building was a manufacturing warehouse and personnel facility a long time ago," Wheeljack said as he went back to his sorting. "But it had been closed once the company began moving more of their resources elsewhere. The government needed to put us someplace that was big enough, and not too close to the population, and Sumdac went out of his way to ensure we had it. He has made sure that we're able to get what we need. He's also helped us cover up traces of our passing, as it were. The government is obviously interested in our well-being, but sometimes there are things that they're best not finding out about. Or, at least, finding out after the fact. It can get kind of sticky sometimes once they get involved. Sumdac asks fewer questions."

Allison paused the initial question that had been on her lips as she thought that through. "Do they know about me?"

Wheeljack looked up for a moment, appearing to consider his response. "There are a few select individuals that have some understanding of some of the more...specific details. But the more immediate priority for them is dealing with what happened in Sealth, and they know you're not going anywhere. Once they're ready, they'll likely want to have a little chat with you." He saw her face pale a little at the news. "But I wouldn't worry about it right now. They'll likely just want a run-down on events. You won't get into any trouble. I'll make sure of that."

"I'm surprised they know about me at all. I would have thought that maybe I'd be lucky enough to fall through the cracks." Part of Allison was glad to know that she hadn't just been another statistic swept under the rug, though the prospect of being thoroughly grilled by some government suit and probably sued for the damage she'd contributed to wasn't too thrilling.

Wheeljack winced as he continued his work. It was a very subtle twitch that passed over his face, but after having to master his changes in expression by watching how his visible face and eyes reacted, Allison saw it easily.

"No, they're aware." His reply was confident, but abrupt, as if he was trying to avoid the subject. Allison sighed, and got on her knees to crawl over to Wheeljack's arm resting on the surface. She rested her face on his forearm and closed her eyes, listening to the murmur of his internal systems working. It was a mechanical chorus in perfect harmony, and it was only accentuated as Wheeljack's idle movements seized once he stilled.

"Well, I'm _not_ dead, and neither are you." Allison murmured, letting the subtle pulse of his spark beneath her lull her into a state of peace. "I guess if I wanted to I could _try_ to live a normal life in the city. But I don't think I'd be able to deal with not seeing you and the others all the time. Still...I'd like to at least pretend that I can be useful and not feel like some kind of stowaway..."

"Only if you're sure it's what you want. While I would prefer that you stay here, I can't make you do anything you don't want to," Wheeljack said sincerely, letting a finger of his opposite hand rest against her back. The pressure against the skin between her shoulder blades shot a brief pulse of pain down her spine, but she suppressed the need to squirm before it passed. "If you wish to pursue something in the city, that's up to you, although maybe we should let things settle down first. From what I got from Prime, Agent Fowler was not entirely happy with the mess we made in Sealth." Allison could tell without looking at him that Wheeljack was smiling, and she smiled to herself. "Apparently Prime got an earful...that human is not afraid to tell Optimus exactly what is on his mind." He raised an eyebrow. "Though I fear you might give him a run for his money."

"Well I'd like to meet a guy like that," Allison said, storing that name away. While Wheeljack didn't say it, she had to assume that would have been their government contact, much like Sumdac was to their civilian dealings.

"You'll get your chance soon enough... our government liaison likes to show up whenever he feels like it."

"Let me guess; he's the arrogant, pompous type who likes to swing his weight around?"

"He's very...vocal. And he could afford a longer tie. But we owe Agent Fowler quite a bit... His job can't be... easy..." Wheeljack said, pausing for effect.

"I think I can imagine that... besides, I'd like to enjoy a lack of responsibility for a while," Allison said with a sigh. She lifted her head and peeked over the plates of Wheeljack's arm to behold the piles of metal on the surface of the worktable. Even thought there was more of an ordered structure to the different piles, it was still just indiscernible scraps to her eyes, but she could make out some similarities between the various piles. "What are you doing with these?"

"These aren't going to work for Sari's volcano, but I can use these for something else," Wheeljack's voice had brightened, and Allison exhaled a breath she didn't know that that she'd been holding in. He paused, looking at her. "Would you like to help me?"

Allison smiled back. "I'd _love_ to."

Wheeljack began directing her in how he wanted the piles organized. They truly were just scraps of metal being organized based on size, so she was able to catch on quickly. She still didn't know what he meant to do with them, but getting to feel somewhat involved with something Wheeljack was doing was a nice break from laying around having Ratchet fuss over her health. These quiet, seemingly mundane moments with Wheeljack had felt too few and far-between, so Allison seized it in the hopes that it would last.

With little else on her mind, she dove into the activity, and they remained that way for the rest of the afternoon, talking idly about very little, but still saying so much.

* * *

><p><strong>For those who may note be aware, Agent Fowler is from Transformers: Prime.<strong>


	6. A Challenger Appears

**Author's note: Usual stuff, I don't own these characters, etc.**

**Finally some movement towards the actual plot. Not much to say this time around. Thanks for those of you who are reading. 3 **

* * *

><p>The remainder of that day passed with little incident, as Allison spent the rest of her time with Wheeljack around the laboratory. After they'd finished organizing the various piles of scrap metal, they'd taken to playing a game of Twenty Questions, where Allison was granted the opportunity to point at random things in the room and ask Wheeljack what exactly they were for. She didn't understand most of what he said, but it was a nice exercise in verbal discourse where they could talk about things other than Starscream or dying.<p>

Allison made a point to ask Wheeljack what the one piece of equipment covered by a cloth was, but that was the one item he became uncharacteristically mute about. When she pointed at it, he'd turned, gaze lingering on it for an extra moment before turning back to her.

"That is...a work in progress. Junk, really," Wheeljack said evasively, but Allison immediately knew he was lying. It didn't seem appropriate to force it out of him as she noted the dimming of his eyes. "It's not finished yet and might not be for a long time." Wheeljack seemed to be thinking his response over, almost as if he were selecting his words carefully. "Think of it as an unfinished painting. One I'm a little embarrassed to leave exposed. Maybe one day I'll go back to it." Wheeljack sounded almost wistful at the notion, but Allison had a hard time understanding why it was something he'd be embarrassed about.

"Why not now?" Allison asked. Wheeljack shook his head at this.

"Not ready. Not yet. I need to feel ready, otherwise it won't come out right."

"I think that's how all artists feel." Allison nodded in response, and Wheeljack leaned against his elbow on the worktable with a wry smile apparent in his eyes.

"I wouldn't call myself an artist. But I guess the perspective is the same."

Allison had let it rest after that, knowing that if it was something important to him, he would tell her when he was ready. Although, she had her doubts that it was junk at all, given the way he had first looked at it. There had been a ghost of regret that passed over his eyes, like a sadness that was possibly long forgotten, perhaps rooted in the time the project had been started. After speaking of his creators and what had happened to Praxus in his past, Allison wondered if they were anchored in the same experience; one that very well might have still been lingering in Wheeljack's mind. She wanted to know more, her heart reaching out to him, but she couldn't find a way to appropriately ask him to share. He had already divulged enough painful memories to her that day, so perhaps it was something that needed to wait for another time.

One thing was clear though. Whatever this was, it was something of great sentimental value. Wheeljack was either stalling, not ready to close that chapter just yet, or he truly did not know what to do with it. Perhaps it wasn't so much of a stretch to think that the vastly intelligent Autobot was actually stumped. Even the greatest artists ran out of steam from time to time. But Allison got the impression it was more than simple artist's block. If the object was something that was very dear to him, it would make sense that it needed to be perfect, and that would come in time.

Since Wheeljack was meant to be back on the duty rotation in the morning, he'd been especially insistent on spending time with Allison until Sari returned from school to begin work on her little project. It wasn't something that she minded, because she knew she'd have plenty of time to be alone with her own thoughts while he was away. After he'd spent more time showing her around, which mainly included more storage rooms too small for Autobot use, what was apparently Sari's room, a rec room (this consisted of one giant space with an area sectioned off seemingly meant for humans, presumably Sari, that included a very large TV and just about every video game console one could imagine) and a mess hall. The Autobots didn't actually eat anything, but they "refueled" with processed energon that was stored in large tanks at the end of this particular room.

When Sari had returned, she had been without Bumblebee who had left with an apology that he was due for patrol duty that evening, so once again Allison was left with only seeing him in passing. Sari had pouted at this, but had quickly forgotten about it as she turned to the excitement of the task at hand. One thing Allison did find interesting was the change in her behavior without Bumblebee around, and she seemed to tip-toe with hesitation around Wheeljack as if she was shy.

Allison found that she could sympathize with this, because for one thing Wheeljack was a great deal bigger than Bumblebee was, but she wondered if Sari was like this around the other Autobots or if Wheeljack was just an anomaly. Allison remembered feeling awkward, and somewhat fearful around Wheeljack when they had first met, but his eccentricities and surprising tenderness had made it easy to become comfortable around him. Sari clearly hadn't spent the same one-on-one time with Wheeljack like she had, which meant she was probably with Bumblebee all the time.

Allison found herself supervising of sorts, even though she had no idea what Wheeljack was doing. She wouldn't have been able to stop him if he'd decided to add a little "extra something" because she wouldn't have been able to recognize the signs anyway. It wasn't exactly what Allison would have expected to make in terms of a model volcano, as she was used to the paper mache and painted kind. This one was welded together with what scraps of metal Wheeljack had salvaged from items in the immediate vicinity, and she'd simply watched him strip apart various things in the room.

This appeared to fuel Sari's excitement, as she seemed to take enjoyment in his careless destruction. He'd lined it with tubing and tanks for the different chemicals to mix, and it was fitted with a simple push-button mechanism which left Allison wondering if it was too complex for a simple elementary school science project. There wasn't really anything she could provide, so she'd let them carry on, and simply trusted that Wheeljack knew what he was doing. After all, she imagined that he could have made it more extravagant if he'd wanted to, and to Allison's untrained eye, while it looked detailed and intricate, it was still remarkably simple.

There was a certain thrill to watching Wheeljack work, which admittedly wasn't something Allison had much of a chance to do up until that point, because there had simply never been time. It was a hard feeling to place, but Allison imagined it was almost like she was watching Leonardo DaVinci himself create the Mona Lisa: Watching brilliance and expertise in motion.

Sari had tried to jump in on more than one occasion to help with the volcano or further examine Wheeljack's handiwork, but he had playfully shooed her away. "Watch the master at work" he'd said. He'd launch into complex, heavily technically explanations of what he was doing as if he was trying to teach them, but his jargon was unfamiliar and too scientific for the humans to understand. Sari had given him a wide-eyed look of fright, and Allison simply frowned, but Wheeljack would take the hint and halt his rantings to back-track in layman's terms. It hardly helped, because he talked so quickly and in such a disorganized, chaotic fashion that there was no actual structure to the directions. If it helped him work, Allison would let him continue despite Sari's complaints. If anything, she enjoyed listening to Wheeljack's jaunty, accented method of speaking because it made the heavily technical words almost sound like poetry.

Sari spent more time with Bumblebee then Allison had previously thought. With a father that practically lived and breathed work, the girl basically lived there save for a few days out of the week here and there where she returned home. While Allison had doubts about her own sanity living with a small armada of alien robots at war, she couldn't imagine a child being in this kind of environment. However, in just the few short moments that she'd met the girl, she'd seemed more than capable of dealing with living there. Despite her initial discomfort around Wheeljack, she had adapted quickly, and was soon trying to climb over the Autobot's working arms in an attempt to feel involved. Wheeljack would softly, and quickly move her aside, and showed remarkable patience when she continued until the message finally hit home and the girl would stop.

There was a sweet, childish naivety to her that Allison almost envied, but she knew that Sari had likely been more sheltered around the base then taken into combat situations. Sari clearly had not encountered the Decepticons like Allison had, and she hoped that the girl never would. Starscream being in the remote vicinity was probably the closest the girl had ever come and as far as Allison was concerned that was enough.

The volcano had worked, remarkably well, and that ended the evening.

Oddly enough, Allison didn't dream of Starscream all night. After seeing him in her mind nightly for the past two weeks, having uninterrupted sleep was almost abnormal, but a welcome change. Perhaps facing him, and confirming to herself with her own eyes that the Decepticon was indeed real, and locked away in a cell had allowed her mind to give her some peace.

The next morning Allison had left her room thoroughly not expecting anything unusual to happen. The room was just about what she would have expected, and was comfortable enough, but there wasn't really anything more she could have asked for. Nearly devoid of personal effects at the moment, there would be time to fill it with the various odds and ends that she was sure she would acquire in due time. It was one of the many smaller rooms that had been sectioned off from the recreational area, and it was a dual-level block of what might have been offices at one time. A single walkway with a stairwell and guardrail sectioned off the top level, and each room had windows that looked out onto the main floor. Thankfully the windows had venetian blinds leftover from the previous occupants which afforded a bit of privacy. It was clean, and that was enough.

What Allison hadn't expected was to see Prowl in the main hall when she emerged, and it almost looked like he had been waiting for her. As Wheeljack had been scheduled to be busy, she hadn't planned for anything in particular, but after what had happened yesterday with Starscream, Prowl was the last person she expected to see. When she saw him, her first instinct was to apologize for what she thought had been a failure at properly interrogating the Decepticon, but before she was able to speak Prowl held up a hand as if to stop her.

"Before you say anything, I believe that what we learned from Starscream may be of some use," Prowl said, and it took Allison a moment to process that in a very subtle way, he was commending her. It was certainly hard to tell from the expression on his face, because there was none. "It means that Megatron may be losing control. It is no surprise that Starscream would have been the first to go, but others may soon follow. Megatron may be out of options if he needs to contact Cybertron as direly as we do, and desperation leads to mistakes."

"I'm glad I could help then," Allison said, silently questioning her own success and wondering if Prowl had been goaded to say that to her by Optimus Prime, but she didn't dare question it. When Prowl didn't actually leave, as she would have expected, she waited for him to say something further. "Is there something else?"

"You managed to elicit a response from the Decepticon that I was not able to, and that may prove to be useful if you are receptive to helping," Prowl said calmly. He began to walk away towards the main hallway, but paused. "I am not entirely comfortable with you speaking with the Decepticon, but Optimus Prime feels that if you are willing, Starscream may yet be reasoned with."

"What do you mean, reason with him? Isn't he your prisoner?" Allison took a step forward, still messing with her hair to make it presentable, but paused when her fingers combed through a snag. Prowl missed the wince that passed over her face as he had his back turned to her, and he appeared to be taking time to consider his response. After a moment he turned just slightly in her direction and regarded her with carefully trained eyes.

"Optimus Prime is of the mind that they can be saved." The lack of enthusiasm in Prowl's voice was not lost on Allison.

"You don't think they can?"

Prowl watched her carefully, but his expression did nothing to show what he might have been thinking.

"It hardly matters what I think," Prowl said, and there was a slight twitch on his brow, betraying his true lack of faith. "Although rational discourse with the Decepticon may prove to be a strategic advantage if we can gather useful information from him. You might be the only person who can do that at this point."

Allison could read the signs to see where this was headed, as it was clear that they thought Starscream's unusual fascination with her would entice him to relax and speak freely. Despite the fears that still plagued her, and her memories of what had happened between her and Starscream before, the more rational part of her brain thought that perhaps facing the source of her fear would help ground it back in reality. Facing Starscream with prison bars and shackles between them seemed like a good enough spring-board to conquer those fears. Her lack of dreaming, after re-living her last moments over and over again for what felt like an eternity, was evidence enough.

"You sure know how to sweet-talk a girl, but I think I can manage that," Allison said with some sarcasm and a smile, not at all expecting the resulting smirk from the Autobot as he nodded. It was so quick it nearly vanished before Allison had a chance to witness it.

"Of course, that is up to you."

"No, I... may be scared of him, but I think I can deal with it when he's locked up if you're there with me."

Prowl's silence was taken as an affirmation as he turned to go, but he stopped once more. This time, he did not look back at her.

"Bumblebee is looking for you." This was added almost as a complete after-thought, so much so that it left Allison momentarily confused as she tried to process this drastic change in tone.

"He is? What does he want?" Allison asked in wonderment, having only met Bumblebee for 10 minutes the day before. She could hardly imagine what he'd want with her now, but Prowl didn't seem to know any more than she did as he continued to stalk off down the hallway. The dialogue between them was clearly over.

"That I do not know." Prowl said over his shoulder.

Allison watched him walk away, feeling a little cold. There was a certain chill about Prowl she couldn't put her finger on. It was probably the severity of his nature. He wasn't like the others; emotionally impassive and about as warm as a brick sitting in the middle of the arctic. Allison got the impression that Prowl dealt with his personal feelings on his own, in his own time. And it was clear that his job and the safety of those around him were his first priority. It was admirable, but it was difficult to get as close to someone like that. That was probably what Prowl intended.

Once Allison was alone, she turned to the task at hand, which included finding Bumblebee and seeing what exactly he wanted. She felt some exhilaration at the unknown, and wanting to get the chance to talk to Bumblebee some more she was eager to find him. After having only spoken to him briefly the day before, she'd gotten the sense that the Autobot was very approachable. Knowing what she had guessed about him and Sari, it was also possible that they had something in common, and it was something of a relief to maybe have someone else other than Wheeljack around that she could have more personal discourse with.

As Bumblebee was clearly not in the main room, she thought the first place she would check would be outside. There was a large garage-like door that led to a covered entryway that was only protected from the elements by a steel awning. It was closed during the night, but opened at daylight so that the Autobots could move about freely. They were in a remote enough area surrounded by forest that seeing other humans was a rarity, but proximity detectors gave ample warning if anything happened to stray into the area, human or Decepticon. Somehow they'd modified certain human signatures, those who were trusted, to not trip the alarms which seemed a useful tool, and meant that Allison wouldn't inadvertently raise any alerts should she decide to explore outside.

Allison walked to the open doorway, and as she hadn't been necessarily watching where she was going she nearly ran straight into a large yellow leg. Unfortunately, this leg did not belong to Bumblebee, but to Sunstreaker.

Yelping as she had to dance out of the way to avoid being inadvertently kicked, she recovered and turned to see not only Sunstreaker, but Sideswipe looking in her direction as they stopped in the doorway. Sideswipe looked thrilled, but as she hadn't seen an expression other than childish giddiness on his face since she met him, she wasn't sure it was possible for the Autobot to have something on his face other than exaggerated excitement. Sunstreaker was again a glaring contrast as he glowered down at her with distaste, which made her wonder if he would have kicked her anyway even if he'd seen her coming.

"Watch where you're going fleshbag!" Sunstreaker barked staring down the plates of his chest at her like she was a bug. Allison huffed, feeling slightly insulted at such an endearment, but stayed her ground despite his threatening posture.

"Charming," Allison muttered to herself. She hadn't seen Sunstreaker for a long while, and the first words out of his mouth that were directed at her were unsurprisingly dismissive and hate-filled. She hadn't thought on it much before, but thinking back, she really hadn't seen much of Sunstreaker at all since she'd woken at the rest stop on the highway. Biting back what was really on her mind, she managed to give Sunstreaker a mild scowl. Sideswipe gave her a sloppy wave.

"Hi, Allison. Where are you going?"

"Hello Sideswipe." Allison felt like she was talking to a child. "I'm looking for Bumblebee, have you seen him?"

"I've seen Bumblebee, yeah," Sideswipe said, impishly "He's yellow and small and-"

"I mean have you seen him _recently_- as in, do you know where he is physically standing right now?" Allison rolled her eyes, feeling as if she had walked right into that one.

"Yeah, he's outside." Sideswipe jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Meanwhile, Sunstreaker's unmoving face was still pointed in her general direction, which Allison thoroughly ignored. His abrasiveness unfortunately left her unsure if trying to engage him in conversation was even worth the trouble. She was also slowly starting to feel intimidated by him as his glare continued, so ignoring him seemed like the better course of action. "But don't approach him from behind, he's skittish. You don't need to get squished twice in one day..."

"I'm sorry, I'm just not used to having to dodge freakishly tall robots on a day to day basis," Allison said dourly, but she offered a subtle smile to indicate that she was joking. While Sideswipe seemed pleased, Sunstreaker had an awful twitch that passed over his face that made it appear as if he'd just been stung.

"She just called you _freakish_ Sunny. You're charming _and_ freakish, all in one day!"

"I didn't mean that!" Allison said, raising her hands and feeling the need to explain her actions after seeing a particularly ugly sneer pass over the yellow Autobot's face. It was starting to make her feel uncomfortable the way he was leaning forward like he was daring her to say more. She wasn't about to put it past him to intentionally instigate a physical altercation, one-sided as it might be, and getting hit by a wrecking ball wasn't something she'd planned for. Sideswipe was actually laughing at his brother as if his offense was funny, which was making things even more awkward. "...I should go..."

"Bye!" Sideswipe called after her as she turned and rushed past Sunstreaker, only offering a wave over her shoulder. Sideswipe's overall indifference had only accentuated Sunstreaker's drastically different, aggressive demeanor, which had left Allison feeling it best to remove herself from that situation before Sunstreaker punched her into the wall. That would have only caused pandemonium.

It was almost a relief when she saw Bumblebee outside. He was kneeling on the ground propped up against a pile of stones, but his back was turned to her. This called to mind Sideswipe's warning, and Allison hesitated with no real notion if Bumblebee actually was skittish. It seemed... weird, but she supposed that any person could have those sorts of ticks, and since for all intents an purposes the Autobots were very _human_ it didn't seem to be a far-off possibility. Allison stood there for a beat in silence and waited for some kind of opening. Bumblebee didn't _appear_ to be doing anything dangerous, but with all the concealed weapons they had hiding within their plating sneaking up on a skittish robot seemed like a very stupid idea.

"They're just teasing you," Bumblebee said unmoving. His voice was muffled as if he was speaking into something, and it wasn't until Allison heard the intensely loud _crack_ of gunfire that she realized what the Autobot was doing. Something exploded far off on the edge of the field a millisecond later, and with some measure of horror she realized that she was interrupting target practice.

"Ah, so Sideswipe made that up, did he?" Allison said, swallowing as she strained her eyes to try and make out what had exploded, but it was so far away she couldn't tell. Bumblebee stood and turned, swinging a very large rifle over his shoulder as he looked at her with soft, amused eyes.

"You'll learn very quickly not to take anything 'Sides says seriously... although, the two of them will be the first to fish your aft out of trouble if needed..." Bumblebee paused, turning to follow Allison's line of vision out onto the field. He turned back, grinning. "Bottles. Nice and small to practice accuracy. There's nothing alive around here for miles. The wildlife doesn't like to hang around here, and we can scan for humans easily." Bumblebee jabbed a thumb out onto the field to emphasize the point. "Besides, I don't miss."

"That's... impressive..." Allison said, somewhat in awe. She'd never so much as touched a gun in her life and hoped she never had to, but she could appreciate what went in to learning how to use one safely and accurately. "Are you a sniper or something?"

"Sniper? Nah, that's Bluestreak's expertise, although I trained with him for a while," he paused, perhaps reading Allison's confused expression. "Ah, Blue's on extended patrol, down the eastern coast monitoring for any 'Con activity out of their main base. He's out there with Cliffjumper, but they won't be back for another month or so. They actually left while you were still with Ratchet... " Bumblebee had a cheeky smile on his face, and Allison returned it in kind. "That's why the place is so quiet. They're not here."

"Prowl said you were looking for me." Allison said, her smile fading just slightly as she relaxed.

Bumblebee lowered the rifle and rested the handle on the ground. He almost appeared to be leaning on it as it dug into the soil, expression thoughtful.

"Walk with me, will you?" Bumblebee turned slinging the rifle over his shoulder as it telescoped into itself with a whir of moving parts and shifting plates. Allison watched as it melded seamlessly into the plating between the panels of his "wings," which fluttered as the Autobot moved. Allison followed him, having to jog to catch up to him as he walked towards the outer perimeter of the base where the tree line began.

They walked through the trees for a small while, stepping over a small brook along the way. Allison hopped from one stepping stone to the next, but Bumblebee was able to cover the distance in one stride.

"So is that all your doing out here? Shooting targets?" Allison asked, wanting to make idle conversation. She still didn't know why Bumblebee had asked for her.

"No. I check the perimeter manually every now and then, though it's mostly just a precaution. We have Teletraan 1 and our other sensors constantly checking for any signs of hostility, though if there were, we'd know about it long before we ever lay our optics on them." Bumblebee stopped, kneeling down to play with a few loose twigs on the ground, shifting them around with a finger. "Still, with Decepticons, you can never be too careful."

Allison brushed away some leaves that were sticking to her sweater. It had been a while since she had smelled dirt and grass (not mixed with stale water and sewage), so it was a nice reminder that there was a calmer, more organic world around her. It was a pleasant reminder of her childhood. The thought of youthful days reminded her of Sari, and she wondered if there was a tactful way to ask Bumblebee about her.

"So... Sari is sweet..."  
><strong><br>**Bumblebee looked at her with a slight turn of his head as they walked and he seemed to be smirking, like he wasn't fooled.

"You're very perceptive, aren't you?"

"I wouldn't say that... maybe I'm just used to it? Wheeljack has a certain look about him, so maybe I just learned to recognize a bond when I see one" Allison shrugged rolling up the sleeves of her sweater. It was new; a marled pink color made of soft yarn. She'd been fond of the color, but the sleeves were too long, and she didn't want to get them dirtied on the ground as she knelt to pick up a loose stone. "Oh, and none of you are very subtle about it. Your faces are practically like an open book when it comes to your emotions, which admittedly is something not many would suspect I guess."

"You know, Fowler doesn't seem to be able to read us very well so I guess I thought that humans weren't able to understand... but it seems like you don't have that problem." Bumblebee said, standing.

"Wheeljack told me about him..."

"He thinks we're too unresponsive... but maybe that's just Prime, then when you get Prowl with him it only exaggerates the situation. Prime always seems very neutral about everything but I think the boss bot is just putting up a barrier on purpose to be a symbol of stability, you know? But get enough high-grade in him and you'll get him talking..." Bumblebee laughed, and it was an altogether pleasant sound, much like Sideswipe's youthful candor except even younger. Allison liked hearing them laugh. It helped her forget how big they were and made them less daunting to deal with, but she was quickly getting used to it. "Prowl is just... well, that's just him. He's always been like that."

"I think Optimus is sweet..." Allison said fondly. "Although Prowl could be a bit more... lively." She looked up and noticed that Bumblebee was looking at her with the expression of someone who'd gotten lost mid-discussion, because he looked completely confused.

"You keep saying _sweet_, do humans judge another person's character through taste?"

"Ah, n-no..." _Oh dear_, Allison thought, flabbergasted. "You mean to tell me Sari has never said anything like that before? Children have all sorts of creative ways of describing things that you can't always take literally. It's... slang I guess. When something is sweet.. it's _nice_. It's someone who's kind and thoughtful. I would dare say that you're _sweet_. Wheeljack is sweet. Ratchet is sw-" Allison paused. "Well, Ratchet is nice when he wants to be, but _I_ think he's sweet, even though I know others may not share that opinion," Allison said impishly, waving her hand dismissively. "I had to explain the reasons behind different song lyrics to Wheeljack and that got a little bit awkward."

"Oh, so that's why Sari keeps saying things are _heavy_. She wondered why I kept picking them up for her..."

"Admittedly, that's a little bit funny, Bumblebee" Allison laughed, blushing as Bumblebee chuckled with her, gesturing with his arm for her to follow him.

"You can just call me 'Bee. Everyone else does. It's up to you." Bumblebee said, turning to walk deeper into the trees. Allison followed him, looking back to faintly see the compound in the distance. Faint splotches of grey broke up the gaps between the trees, and she could just barely make out the blob that marked the pile of stones Bumblebee had been kneeling behind before.

"I wasn't expecting her to be so young, to be honest," Allison said as she turned to follow. Bumblebee didn't stop, but she heard him huff as if he was sighing. This was probably a conversation he'd had to endure multiple times, making Allison regret saying it. It wasn't her intention to scold anyone or make any accusations... she was merely curious as to how a 12-year old girl had gotten into such a situation in the first place.

"She's smart for her age, though that's no surprise given her pedigree. And she's funny too." Bumblebee finally said, and he seemed to be choosing his words carefully. "And she can kick my aft at just about any Earth video game I throw at her."

"That doesn't make her necessarily capable of dealing with this kind of danger," Allison said, immediately regretting it. Bumblebee suddenly stopped in front her, making Allison stumble as she had to avoid colliding with his lower leg. Backing up, she was surprised to see an ugly scowl ruining Bumblebee's otherwise youthful features. He looked at her briefly before turning his attention back to the path he was following.

"I'm sorry... I'm not trying to interrogate you... I'm just curious. It isn't my place to judge, really because I can't really say I'm all that older than Sari if you compare me to Wheeljack," Allison said, raising her arms, hoping she hadn't offended the yellow Autobot. Thankfully his face softened.

"It's okay... I can't say that I blame you actually. I guess it's expected that you'd be concerned. Maternal instincts, you call it?" Bumblebee said, giving her a forced smile. Allison had to think about that one for a moment.

"Uhm... yes," Allison lied, partially, having to think hard on whether or not that was the real reason for her curiosity (and concern) or if it was something else. She'd never really liked kids, but Sari had seemed a little different. Regardless, if that made sense to the Autobot then that was good enough for her. "Maybe thinking back on what I went through, I guess it's just hard to imagine a child in that same situation... but I trust Wheeljack, and I would bet that Sari trusts you. I would."

"Thanks, that's... sweet," Bumblebee hesitated, and Allison nodded to indicate that he was using it correctly. She couldn't help but smile as Bumblebee continued, but he had a small frown on his face. "I don't take her out into danger with me. I make sure she doesn't follow us, and she doesn't go on patrol with me... I don't know that I could stomach the idea of her having to face that." Bumblebee paused and looked at her with some trepidation. Allison knew what he was thinking.

"It... wasn't pleasant no. I'm surprised I got out of it like I did. Granted, I died, but Ratchet practically reanimated me. I don't think many people are that lucky. The point I'm getting at is that any near-death experience is traumatic enough for anyone, let alone a young child. Just... please be careful with her, is all I'm saying."

"Trust me, I will..." Bumblebee said softly, but there was no less weight in his words. His face was passive, but the words were deep as if they were coming from within him; from his own spark. Bumblebee would never intentionally put her in harm's way. "I've already had this little chat with Optimus a long time ago. And Ratchet's already given me a hard enough time over it."

Allison had to laugh. "That's what Ratchet does. He gives everyone a bad time." Despite this, she felt a little bad for Bumblebee. From what she could gather, they had no real control over who their sparks bonded too - It just sort of _happened_, with no warning. It seemed unfair to give Bumblebee a hard time about it when he really was more or less an innocent party.

"Tell me about it." Bumblebee grunted as a memory came to his mind. "Imagine trying to explain this to a little girl in terms she would understand... I apparently didn't do it very well, because the doc bot made it very obvious. Said that I was explaining it all wrong."

"I think maybe he was just trying to help, in his own grumpy way." Allison said, jumping onto a fallen tree stump and tested her balance. Her back hadn't been hurting where Starscream's null ray had hit her, but it felt stiff, like someone had grafted a burlap sack over her skin in that spot.

"But it's the way he did it, Allison. He didn't just raise his hand or clear his throat. He did it by snapping an inscription stylus. Just to get my attention!" Bumblebee had his hands raised towards her ready to catch as if he half-expected her to fall off. "And don't do that. If I break you, Wheeljack will have my head on a dissecting tray... I'm not kidding."

Allison laughed loudly at this, but graciously took Bumblebee's offered hand as she hopped back down onto the ground.. "I'm not a ceramic bowl, but okay. I'd protect you anyway." They continued on for a few more moments, and it was at this point it became clear that Bumblebee had simply wanted to _talk_. Allison was perfectly okay with that, and even walking in silence through the trees with the Autobot was surprisingly peaceful.

Bumblebee stopped suddenly, reaching out with a hand in front of Allison to halt her, cutting her reverie short as she once again had to stop herself from smacking into his palm. His other hand was at his back in the next instant, and the rifle was silently pulled around to his front as it elongated to full size. He brought his other hand to his mouth to signal her into silence and Allison immediately obliged, feeling her heart rate climb as Bumblebee's expression turned severe. She'd learned very quickly that if an Autobot detected something, it was probably not a good thing.

They both quickly hunkered down in the grass behind a fallen tree after a quick signal from Bumblebee caused Allison to drop nearly flat on the ground. There was enough of a gradient on the slope in front of them for Bumblebee's large frame to stay mostly hidden. It didn't however allow him much movement, and he seemed to tuck his body inward, propped against his elbows and door wings pulled tightly against his back. He was remarkably silent as the rifle was slid forward, pointing just over the rise of the slope.

"What is it?" Allison dared a whisper, but Bumblebee didn't respond. His gaze was fixed on something up ahead. He remained firmly entrenched, looking through the scope of his rifle at something over the crest of the hill. Allison risked a glance over the edge of the log, but couldn't see anything over the top of the hill due to her smaller stature.

Finally after a moment, Bumblebee visibly relaxed, allowing Allison to exhale the breath she'd been holding.

It's ok," Bumblebee said. "It's just another human."

"A human... I thought you said you knew when someone was around?" Allison hissed, mostly out of fright knowing that they could have blundered into a human at any time without knowing. It didn't help that Bumblebee had been shooting into the woods not minutes before.

Allison lifted her body with some hesitation to peer over the meager slope, wanting to see for herself who they'd nearly run into. At first she didn't see anything of note, until she spotted a brightly-clothed figure walking between the trees. It looked male, in what looked like a red jacket and black slacks-surprisingly overdressed for someone wandering around in the forest. His dark hair was neatly groomed, and he held something in his hand that wasn't immediately discernible to Allison at first glance. It could have been a rifle of some kind, or a long metal pole - a prod - but he held it poised in front of him like a weapon ready to strike. Something about this image was just very, very wrong, and Allison felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Instinctively repulsed, she ducked back down, finding herself naturally gravitate towards Bumblebee's tense frame.

"What's he doing out here?" Allison whispered, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation as to why such a sharply dressed man was wandering out in the sticks.

"Hard to say," Bumblebee offered, voice low. Allison risked another glance towards the man, mostly out of sheer curiosity to see what he was doing. He was walking purposefully through the trees in a straight line, eyes trained on the ground as if he was searching for something, but he didn't make any effort to kick or brush away anything at his feet. He was just simply staring, but the concentration that she could make out in his expression was clear. Allison was about to relay that thought when the man suddenly looked up. His eyes locked directly with Allison's, and in her startled panic she made no effort to conceal herself, but was only able to stare back.

Then the man smiled at her. It was a creepy, slanted grin, like someone catching a child doing something rotten. Allison got the distinct impression that she'd been _caught_, but doing what she couldn't put her finger on; It was simply a vibe. She felt her spine tingle as the man remained motionless, almost lifeless in his deliberate stillness and it made her heart race. She could barely hear Bumblebee hiss at her to get down over her beating heart.

Something strange happened then. The man started to flicker, the way a broken video image might if the computer file was damaged. The man's expression didn't change as he simply fizzled out and vanished. He was just _gone_.

There was a pregnant silence before Allison found that she could speak. She'd so far seen a great deal of unusual, even terrifying things... but this was like staring down a nightmare in the flesh.

"What... what did I just see?"

"That was a Decepticon hologram." Bumblebee growled, voice dangerously low. Bumblebee shifted, suddenly alert but his posture was still crouched, wings flat against his frame. Allison watched him with muted horror, realizing how thoroughly useless she was if there truly was a Decepticon lurking through the brush. "It also means whoever it is, they're close... but I'm not detecting anything which is odd. They don't send in their holograms unless they think they're closing in on their quarry."

"He looked... so real..." It was all Allison could manage, as the sudden sensation that all the trees had eyes took a firm hold on her imagination. Great, they had _holograms_ now. What the hell _couldn't_ the Decepticons do? The realization that they truly _were _engines of death and destruction, and that they could do it stealthily, suddenly made her really eager to leave.

"That's why they're so dangerous. They're not easily detected even on normal occasions, but I'm not picking up a single thing... and they're rare. Not every Cybertronian has them," Bumblebee whispered. He stood up and started making his way over to where the figure had stood. He moved slowly and deliberately, motioning with his hand for Allison to stay behind, which she was only too happy to oblige. She was too intent on keeping sight of Bumblebee that she didn't notice the figure behind her until it caught her eye far too late.

It was a mere flutter of sensation at the edge of her awareness, like seeing something out of the corner of your eye and hearing only a faint sensation of movement to accompany it. With a gasp she spun around, only to come face-to-face with the same man from moments before.

The figure rushed forward in a blur like a ghost, and Allison only saw the impression of red eyes as she fell back, stumbling over the fallen tree that had previously served as her hiding place. She threw up her arms simultaneously on instinct, yelping when she hit the ground with a wet thunk as her body harmlessly hit soft grass. She was stunned with the surprise of being jumped so quickly and ferociously that she couldn't completely grip the moment and react. It was only once the man was upon her did she notice that he was swinging the long metal prod like a dangerous baton in a clear display of threat. It crackled with angry blue light like an electric coil, and it was only when the figure jumped onto the fallen tree to stand over as if to attack, did she finally find her voice.

"Bumblebee _do something!_"

"It's no good, it's just a hologram!" She heard Bumblebee's startled voice behind her, but the uncertainty clear in his voice was not uplifting. Allison crawled backwards on her hands, dragging her body through fallen leaves and grass as she tried to back up onto the slope. "I... ah... FRAG!"

"He has a cattle prod! He's going to hit me with it!" The stupid words left Allison's mouth in a blur as she finally realized what the man - the Decepticon hologram - was swinging, lifted above his head as he prepared to force it downwards. For simply a hologram, it certainly looked like it was about to stab her, and she had no desire to test the tangibility of said weapon anytime soon. It looked real enough, and dangerous enough, and _solid_ enough to convince her that this was not just a very well-done fake. A calm, serene, almost amused grin remained on the facsimile's face as he jumped forward to bring the electrified prod down onto her chest.

Allison had covered her head at that moment, so she didn't see the shot slice through the hologram once Bumblebee had finally spurred to action and fired. In his confusion he had hesitated, firing just seconds before it had been about to overtake her. Thankfully it had done _something_, because the image of the man seemed to explode and fizzle out as the bullet passed through the living picture, only to blink out of existence completely.

"What... what the hell..." Allison scrambled up, partially flailing as she was hoisted up by a panicked yellow Autobot. Bumblebee was yanking her in every directing as if expecting her to be disemboweled and bleeding her entrails all over the forest floor. Allison half ignored him, still trying to process what she'd seen with limbs that were numb and a head that was buzzing. "I thought that was a hologram... what kind of hologram can run up to someone and attack them?"

"A good one. Really that's just the quickest way to explain it in terms you'd understand." Bumblebee stopped his impromptu examination and seized Allison off the ground in one swift motion, causing her to gasp as all her senses were thrown for a loop. "Slag... Wheeljack is going to kill me for sure... we gotta go." In the next instant Allison was on Bumblebee's shoulder, clinging for dear life to whatever she could grab as Bumblebee took off through the trees towards the building of the base. "Hang on. I don't want to radio this in and risk having it intercepted. We need to get back _quickly_." Bumblebee put emphasis on that last word, as his pace seemed to quicken once they broke the trees.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's note: I'm not entirely into the whole hologramholoform thing, but there will be small reference to it here and there, so it only has a small role in the actual plot. I'm guessing it's fairly obvious as to who it is, but it's going to be mentioned soon.**


	7. You Shot at a What?

**Author's note: This chapter includes some technical mumbo-jumbo that I essentially just made up on the fly, so please excuse that. I've tried to keep the technical jargon to a minimum, but this chapter required some explanation of what had been happening. Essentially, these events act as the catalyst to get the characters moving to their places so-to-speak. I'll probably be updating fairly consistently just to keep things moving.**

**Usual stuff. I don't own these characters, etc.**

* * *

><p>Wheeljack had proved he was capable of surprising speeds on the few occasions Allison had been given a chance to witness him move with urgency, but Bumblebee was fast on a whole new level. It was probably his size that gave him the advantage of speed, and his build seemed far more streamlined in a way that made the younger Autobot far more aerodynamic than his older friend. Unfortunately, it was this same curved design and the lowered posture he took when he ran that made it very difficult for Allison to cling to the side of his head without the risk of flying off and suffering any number of terrible injuries.<p>

"Bumblebee, stop!" Allison gasped, squeezing her eyes shut as the cold air hit her face. Bumblebee _did not_ stop, but thankfully his panicked sprint did not last much longer as she had the vaguest sensation of passing under a roof before warm air hit her the next moment. They were back at the base, and as Bumblebee slowed and showed no indication he was about to pull out any firearms, Allison took it as a sign that they had not been followed.

While the Autobot was no longer running at maximum speed, he still made good time as he sprinted quickly down the main corridor towards the control room. Allison continued to hold on tightly, but was able to keep her eyes focused on where they were more clearly, and had a pretty good idea where Bumblebee was heading.

Any notion that she was about to go see Wheeljack quickly fizzled out as Bumblebee passed Ratchet's med-bay, stumbled as he skidded to change course and shot straight into the large metal room that had been Allison's world for the first two weeks.

"Bumblebee, if you are not dying or already dead I don't care..." Ratchet was sitting at one of the berths with an array of wires spread out before him, leaning over them with an eye telescoped outwards for magnification. To Allison's dismay, Bumblebee walked straight towards him, plucking her off his shoulder only to deposit her onto the berth amongst the tangled cables. Allison grunted in offense as she hit the meagerly padded surface, rubbing her knees that had bore the brunt of the impact.

"I'm fine... what are you doing?" Allison protested, flustered, as she was still not entirely sure what had happened out in the woods, and now she was being thrown at Ratchet with no explanation. Bumblebee was probably being cautious... or didn't want to face Wheeljack with her present during the conversation they were about to have. She had been out there with him after all, and one could say under his supervision. She could argue that she didn't even need supervising, but that argument was probably irrelevant at this point.

If Wheeljack was monitoring the area... shouldn't he have seen that coming?

"Stay here..." Bumblebee said hurriedly, before he vanished out of the room in what could have almost been the blink of an eye, and Allison was left standing in silence with Ratchet. There was no time to think on Wheeljack further as she heard Ratchet grunt, the long metal tool he was holding hitting the surface of the berth with a loud slap.

"I don't..." Allison turned to Ratchet not sure what to tell him to explain this interruption, but she stopped in mid-sentence. "Do you have to have your eye out like that? And I don't know why he brought me in here..." Her last sentence was a gesture of peace, because Ratchet looked none too pleased as his eye retracted back to it's normal position in his head.

"What happened?" Ratchet said, standing to circle around the berth as he immediately began to scan her with a translucent beam that slid out of his forearm. Allison let him continue, used to Ratchet's instinctive habit of monitoring her health and scanning her every chance he got. The Autobot was many things, but he was not uncaring.

"I.. don't really know honestly. We were outside walking around the perimeter... and there was this _guy_-" Allison stopped, noting Ratchet's expression change.

"Another human?" Ratchet asked, a little exasperated. "Is that all?"

"Not exactly. I mean, there was a man there, but he wasn't actually, well, a person..." Allison swallowed hard, not entirely sure how the medic was about to receive what she was about to say. "It was a hologram... Bumblebee said it was a hologram..."

"What?" Ratchet's sudden stop was not entirely surprising, but his inability to look in her direction gave Allison pause.

"A hologram... like I just said... and it _smiled at me _then just disappeared. It had some kind of electric cattle prod-"

"A _cattle prod_?" Ratchet squinted, giving up on his scanning as everything presumably came up negative. Allison could have told him that herself, but she found herself waiting for a long while, leaning away from Ratchet as if he was inadvertently calling her crazy with his expression alone.

"Yes?" Allison dared. "It looked like one, anyway. It was long and electrified at one end. Look, it all happened rather fast. I didn't really understand what was happening at the time..." She stopped as Ratchet gave her the oddest expression, like he already knew what she was trying to explain.

"Well, good to see you back in one piece...for once." Ratchet walked towards the door with a wave over his shoulder, but his tone was abrupt. "Stay here and don't move. I won't be long."

"But I'm stuck up here!" Allison protested as Ratchet vanished around the corner. "I'm fine, can you at least help me down?"

"I won't be long," Ratchet's repeated, his voice slightly distanced as he moved down the hallway. Allison sighed and sat on the surface of the counter to wait, feeling somewhat displaced and bored at the same time. She wanted to get a better explanation of what had just happened, and what it meant, and most important _who_ that had been lurking around.

Apparently it would have to wait, and she had nothing to do to pass the time but look around the infirmary and at the various tools Ratchet had left on the berth next to her. She glanced idly at an odd-looking device that sat next to her. Its surface was a metallic teal color, and had a brilliant, fluorescent tube coming out of one end. A metal ball was spinning methodically inside it, and Allison felt the compulsive need to reach out and touch it.

"And don't touch anything!" Ratchet's voice yelled down the hall, causing her to retract her arm hurriedly.

"Fine." Allison rested her hands on the surface on either side of her, stared at the ceiling, and waited.

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><p>Wheeljack vented air. He had been staring at the array of screens in front of him for several hours now, and it had long since grown tiresome. Sitting still had never been one of his favorite pastimes, but pacing about the room with his attention split between the monitors and sensors and his own internal thoughts had surprisingly lost it's luster as well. Now Wheeljack sat, turning the Pendulum device idly in his hands as he thought, dividing all his focus between the dead human device and what was before him. Things had been quiet, which had allowed him the needed time to try and decipher why the slagging device was still not functioning.<p>

He'd plugged it into his scanning array, and had thrown just about every possible encryption protocol and algorithm he could think of at it, but it still refused to function. It was about as useful as a data pad weight at this point, but he was convinced that he was missing something. It had to be simple. Perhaps he was over-thinking it. Sometimes even the simplest things escaped him, his overclocked processor often times proving to be his own worst enemy when it came to the small things. His active need to think things through down to the smallest, most intricate component or detail more than occasionally led him to missing the bigger picture. He'd learned long ago to force himself to back-track his own thoughts and revise his own disorganized, chaotic way of working out solutions. That didn't stop things from going wrong anyway.

The trouble was, he had rethought things through with this particular conundrum time and time again, but he was still coming up blank each time. That was not a common state of mind for Wheeljack, and it was not a comforting one. He was used to resolving every issue that came his way, regardless of how long it took. But he was missing something, a key of some sort, or a customized algorithm that perhaps only Doctor Arkeville had known. He was coming to the conclusion that he might have to resort to brute force, though more to settle his own frustration than to discover some mystical insight.

As if to hammer that notion home, the control room door chose that moment to fly open, and a wild-eyed, yellow-and-black scout came tumbling into the room. He was already talking heatedly as soon as he entered, and Wheeljack found that he was having to translate Bumblebee's hurried speech, which alternated between Human English and his native Cybertronian, as if he couldn't quite decide what language he wanted to speak in.

"Bumblebee, calm down." Wheeljack said, motioning with his hands for the yellow Autobot to slow down.

Bumblebee opened his mouth as if he was about to answer, then hesitated.

"Wait...Wheeljack...what are you _doing _in here?"

Wheeljack was taken aback by the question. "What do you mean? I've been here watching the scanners." Truthfully, he had been startled by Bumblebee's entrance, guiltily realizing that the pensive nature of his previous examinations of the device could very well have looked more like lazing around. He had sprung up from his reclined position in his chair to a more upright one, pushing a couple of random buttons on the security panels to bolster the image that he was in fact working hard.

Bumblebee looked around in a manner that Wheeljack could only describe as paranoid.

"Where's Prime? I need to talk to him-wait...what? Scanners? You've been watching the scanners this whole time?"

"That, and I've been _trying_ to decrypting this ridiculous contraption the whole time, like I was _asked_ to." Wheeljack hefted up the Pendulum device for Bumblebee to see. "It's not an exact science and..." He stared at the device. "I don't even know why it's called a Pendulum. It doesn't even _look_ like one." Wheeljack squinted at Bumblebee. "You said 'this whole time'. What do you mean by '_this whole time_'?"

Bumblebee was clearly agitated, and as Wheeljack set the broken device down on the console next to him he sat forward, realizing that this was not about him getting in trouble. This time, whatever trouble was going on legitimately could not be blamed on him.

"'Bee, take a klik to calm down and tell me what's going on..."

Bumblebee paused for a moment, and seemed to visibly relax, but his frown underscored the urgent matter that was on his mind.

"Have you noticed anything... unusual?" Bumblebee said, walking to the monitors to stand next to him. His optics swept across Teletraan 1's main monitor interface, as if he was looking for something in particular.

"No... it's been completely quiet, just like always," Wheeljack said, rubbing at the back of his head absently. "Why?" Bumblebee's expression fazed out for a moment as he appeared to be thinking. "What's going on?"

When Bumblebee's focus returned, he turned to Wheeljack. "I was walking the perimeter and a 'Con holo was out there sniffing around..." Bumblebee said, expression grave, but voice hesitant, like there was something he was holding back. "We nearly stumbled right into it. That shouldn't have even been possible. Are you sure you didn't see anything at all on your last sweep?"

"Wait a minute..." Wheeljack held up a hand. "'We'? Who were you patrolling with? The twins?"

Bumblebee shook his head, a nervous look on his face.

"No? Was it Ratchet? Arcee?"

Bumblebee looked away, admitting with his expression alone that Wheeljack was not going to like what came next. The engineer blinked, then leaned back in surprise. "You took _Allison _out there?" His spark churned angrily in his chest, his vents tightening with agitation as he looked at the scout in shock.

"Nothing was supposed to have happened!"

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?" Wheeljack's expression was slightly hysterical, which was reflected in Bumblebee's face as the yellow bot stabbed a finger into Wheeljack's chest-plate.

"Hey, you were in control of sensor sweeps. If something was wrong, _you _should have been the first to know about it!"

"That's your job as a scout, you yellow-plated..." Wheeljack stopped his tirade mid-sentence, realizing with some horror and a little bit of guilt that Bumblebee was right. "Is she okay?" The guilt turned to mild panic as he considered all manner of things that could have happened; everything that he'd worked so hard to keep _away _from her when they had been in Sealth. He trusted Bumblebee, but one small scout against an armada of Decepticons was not a challenge.

"Allison's perfectly fine. She's with Ratchet - just a precaution!" Bumblebee added hurriedly. "She's uninjured, and didn't seem all that bothered by what happened 'cept for maybe a little bit shocked. She saw the holoform, and it approached us, but it vanished when I shot at it. She wasn't in any immediate danger as far as I can tell."

Wheeljack raised a brow ridge at one note in particular, momentarily letting a smile slip past his alarm. It was common knowledge that holograms weren't _solid_ so there was nothing to shoot _at._

"You shot at it?" With his head tilted Wheeljack gave Bumblebee a sarcastic look, which the scout may or may not have recognized beneath his battle mask. Bumblebee huffed, scowling.

"Look, I panicked, alright? It happened too fast and Allison was yelling at me to _do something_ because it was coming right at her - Oh shove it, you would have done the same thing!" Bumblebee leaned back, arms folded in frustration as Wheeljack simply laughed at him.

"I'm sorry 'Bee, but there's nothing but refracted light and sensor trickery... nothing solid to even shoot at, you know this..." Wheeljack finally paused in his laughter long enough to catch an intake of air, rubbing at an optic as if wiping away a forced tear of pleasure. There was of course no tear, but it had become an instinctive habit after observing humans - observing Allison - for so long.

"It came at us, well came at Allison with a weapon drawn... but I don't think there was any danger. It just seemed different. I think they saw Allison and just wanted to see what kind of reaction they could get. After all, it _did_ disappear after I shot at it." Bumblebee said, trying to nurse his wounded pride by bringing the subject back around to the more serious subject at hand.

"But you _did_ shoot at a hologram." Wheeljack added off-handedly. Bumblebee scowled at him, and Wheeljack frowned, realizing there were bigger problems then their one scout shooting blindly at intangible phantoms. "But you're sure she's alright? Was she scared? Did she get hurt?" Bumblebee's overwhelmed stare told Wheeljack that he was firing off his questions in a panicked jumble. He stopped, closing his optics for a klik to regain his senses and tell his fritzed spark that Bumblebee would not be standing here looking annoyed if his bonded _wasn't _okay. "Alright, alright... any idea who it was?" Wheeljack nodded as he felt his insides relax, air intakes loosening with a relieved breath. He could talk to Allison later. Right now he had to figure out why a Decepticon hologram had slipped passed him in the first place.

"I think it was Knock Out..."

"That vain pile of scrap?" Wheeljack leaned forward towards the scout, surprised. "What would a Decepti-creep like him being doing in a dirt-filled, leaf-strewn forest like this? I'd have thought he'd be too worried about getting scuffs on his paintjob to even think of showing his face around here."

"I'm not sure..." Bumblebee said. "He was wandering around, likely looking for _us_..." He said with some hesitation, not wanting to think it possible that they had so easily been caught.

"And you led them right to us..." The grunt from the doorway made Ratchet's sudden presence known as he stalked into the room, jabbing a thumb over his shoulder as Prime followed close behind. Wheeljack saw Bumblebee's expression drop as his wing panels wilted, the guilt evident on his face as Ratchet's tactful way of pointing out the obvious succeeded in only making him feel worse.

Wheeljack felt a stir of remorse for Bumblebee, knowing that he probably would have done the same thing had Allison been with him, or any human for that matter. Like it or not, a human was a liability and a distraction, and only in more danger of getting killed, and by proxy getting them killed, than being able to offer any real assistance. Running back to the base was the only safe option, because the instinct to protect was going to override any self-preservation protocols. For the majority of Autobots anyway, and there were always going to be exceptions...

"I found Prime by the way - Wheeljack stop looking at me like that, she's fine. She's more than fine, and you can ask her all about it later." Ratchet was undeterred by Bumblebee dejected countenance, clearly distracted by Wheeljack's startled glance as he jumped on that train of conversation before it could get rolling. Wheeljack bristled with some annoyance at this, but he decided it best not to vocalize it with present company.

The fact that he had some explaining to do was more than enough to help him keep his mouth shut. He was more bothered by the fact that he _should_ have seen it, especially if Allison and Bumblebee had been out there and unprepared. If the situation had played out differently, the both of them needlessly being in that situation would have been the least of their problems. There would have been no Allison, or Bumblebee for that matter to bring back.

That sudden painful realization was more than enough to draw his gaze to the monitors as he stared blankly, trying to decipher something that would answer the question as to why he hadn't seen it coming. He should have-

"Let's first discuss how this happened," Prime said, clearing his vocals. Wheeljack answered abruptly, not entirely certain why he was feeling so threatened and backed into a corner.

"I swear, Prime. I had all our exterior sensors running at full range. And I was observing them all as closely as I could. If anything came even remotely close to the area, I would have - should have seen it. I don't know how this-" Wheeljack stopped, vocal panels going dark as Prime held up his hand to stop his ramblings.

"I'm not blaming you, Wheeljack. I don't think any of us could have foreseen something so sudden. Right now we need to concentrate on the how, and what we're going to do to prevent this from happening again. I don't think I need to impress upon you the importance of this, considering who was out there," Prime said, voice nothing but calm, which was possibly why Wheeljack was feeling more agitated than necessary. He _should_ be punished. He'd made an error that could have so easily been fatal.

"I..." Wheeljack paused, looking over the monitors. "Give me a minute, I need to think this through..." With grim acceptance that it had happened, whether he liked it or not, he stood and walked to Teletraan 1's central interface in the center of the room. By remotely accessing the central security log, he could view the full read-out of the previous few hours to comb through the data stream. It allowed him to tune the others out and simply focus, rather than linger over the thought of what must have been going through Allison's head. He couldn't leave to be with her, not until he sussed out what had happened. With this in mind, he centralized his focus on the cascading streams of data packets and fragments of information looking for their secretive guest.

Wisely, the other Autobots did not disturb him. Wheeljack only heard fragments of their conversation, but was too absorbed to really care that they were talking about him. He was too concerned with this new problem at hand, a new equation to solve, to give it any further thought.

"He's taking this really hard...It's not even his fault... It's mine." Bumblebee said, vocals lowered to near silence. He vented air lightly in solemn acceptance of the fact that he had very luckily dodged a bullet. If Knock Out had actually been around and intending to attack, he could have killed them - _would_ have killed them was more accurate. Bumblebee was many things, but Knock Out was bigger, stronger, and vastly more malicious with a sadistic streak that could have rivaled Megatron's and Starscream's combined. Bumblebee was built for stealth and quick fighting maneuvers. Knock Out was quick, but with all the weaponized medical equipment at his disposal speed was not the main issue. They would have been rendered unconscious, or worse, immobile and _still conscious_ without even realizing what was happening before the scalpels came out.

Bumblebee shivered, wings panels twitching with trepidation at the thought. If it had happened on his watch, under his responsibility... he couldn't imagine Sari being in that position, and the very thought actually made him feel physically ill. What was even worse, was that he had been in such a zone of comfort that taking Sari with him wouldn't have been such a far-off possibility. He would certainly be thinking twice now...

Allison was Wheeljack's, and she had been under his supervision. Somehow that felt worse, because not only would he have felt terrible, and most likely dead (possibly leaving that a moot point regardless), but Wheeljack would have been destroyed without even needing to be in the cross-hairs. He couldn't fathom doing that to a friend, and not even to the enemy...

"Don't you do that too. We don't need two Autobots with a guilt complex in here," Ratchet vented loudly, scoffing. "What's done is done. Let's try and figure out what happened before we start throwing blame around."

"I..." Bumblebee started, but stopped when Prime gave him a softly stern expression to instill quiet. The scout complied, grinding his jaw in frustration. Prime was looking between them in silence, only pausing for a moment to speak.

"Wheeljack was on watch, so it's only natural he might feel responsible for what happened. You were there Bumblebee, so the burden may feel especially heavy on your shoulders as well." Prime always knew the right thing to say, to bring reason to the irrational misgivings that clawed at them whenever things went south. It helped Bumblebee calm to know that at least someone understood.

"Should I go say something to him?" Bumblebee asked, looking at Wheeljack who stood silently at the central podium. He was unmoving, but that didn't mask the very fact that he was deeply rooted into Teletraan 1's central processor, fishing for clues as to how Knock Out had slipped past their defense perimeter without being detected.

"No. Wheeljack will work it out the way he needs to. If anything it might keep his concentration on the matter at hand." Ratchet said, optics softening as his voice lowered. "Besides, he and Allison can pour all their emotions out to their spark's content later." he folded his arms across his chest and shrugged at the expressions that followed him. "What? You didn't spend an entire two months with those two, and let me tell you, I've never seen a bigger couple of saps on this planet _or_ Cybertron-"

Bumblebee made a noise close to a snort of laughter, but stopped when Prime cleared his vocalizer in inquiry. It wasn't in Prime's nature to get upset, and as he let Ratchet get away with a great deal of freedoms his eyes were simply glowing softly with subdued amusement.

"Back to the matter at hand, Ratchet do you have any insight as to what Knock Out may have been intending to do?"

"Oh, you think I know because I'm a medic, is that right? In the academy Knock Out was always more interested in himself and what people would do for _him_. I certainly didn't socialize with that arrogant, strutting, puffed up-" Ratchet leaned back, stopping as Prime's optics hardened just slightly. It was the sign that his patience was being tested. Not strained, simply being tested, and it meant that Prime was more concerned than he was letting on. Ratchet shrugged, optics dimming. "Who knows what that sociopath was up to. He could have simply been scouting the area. Although why him I couldn't tell you. I'm surprised Megatron let his medic stray so far from the Nemesis, but I don't make his decisions for him."

"In any case, I'll radio Prowl and get him in here. We may need to come up with a strategy. If Knock Out did manage to locate the building, we could be in danger of an attack at any moment, so we'll need to be prepared for all options. We may even need to relocate..." Prime said, stopping as Bumblebee choked with a startled gasp.

"No... I..."

"We will leave that up to Agent Fowler. If it's decided that's the safest course of action for _everyone_, we may have no choice. We are not prepared for a full-scale assault." Prime placed a gentle hand on the yellow scout's shoulder, venting a heavy sigh of air. "You did what you had to do, but there's more at stake here than just us. If we need to find a safer place to hide, then so be it."

"_Hide_." Ratchet grunted, as if the very notion in of itself was greatly offensive. Prime's eyes darkened for a moment, but he did not respond. "Well, I guess that's we're best at," Ratchet said eventually.

"We will hide as long as we need to. As long as the humans ask us to. I will recall Hound and Trailbreaker from the west and divert them to our secondary location to await further instructions. It may be smarter for Bluestreak and Cliffjumper to remain on the eastern seaboard should there be any increase in activity from the Nemesis." Everyone nodded, realizing there were no other options. If they had been caught, they would need to be prepared for the worst.

Prowl arrived moments later, severely even expression hard to discern as he entered the room, arms crossed behind his back. The security officer looked between them silently before he frowned.

"I hear we had a perimeter breach."

"Not just any perimeter breach I'm afraid. A Decepticon hologram belonging to Knock Out was able to slip past our defenses completely undetected," Optimus Prime said, optics narrowed in lightly glowing contemplation. Prowl looked dourly at Wheeljack's back and made a noise as if to cough in order to get the engineer's attention.

"And you did not see this?" Prowl didn't appear to be aware that Wheeljack was not listening to them, as he stared at the engineer's back in silence for a moment. When Wheeljack's still frame did not respond back, Prowl turned back to the Autobot leader in question. "He did not see this?"

"As I understand it did not appear on our sensors, nor was there any visual contact save for Bumblebee and Allison, who had been walking the perimeter at the time."

"The human was with you?" Prowl turned to Bumblebee with a frown of disapproval, and the scout cringed as if he had been burned.

"Yeah, she was with me, but this was supposed to be routine. It's not like we were hunting for Decepticons next door to the Nemesis, we were just walking!" Bumblebee explained hurriedly, growing tired of the need to defend his and Allison's actions once again.

"What did you do?" Prowl asked. The question was innocent enough, but underneath Prowl's words Bumblebee knew that there was a hint of scorn just below the surface of each syllable. Bumblebee frowned, knowing what he was about to say was going to be met with more sarcasm at his expense.

"I... I shot at it."

Sure enough, Prowl quirked an eyebrow at this in an almost mirror image of the expression Wheeljack had given him, but the addition of Ratchet's startled stare thrown in his direction added a great deal to the embarrassment.

"You shot at a hologram?" Prowl parroted, as if unable to believe what he'd heard.

"Yes. Wheeljack already had a big laugh at my expense. I panicked. It came at Allison to scare her and it succeeded. She was yelling at me to _do_ something... so I did. It disappeared, end of story," Bumblebee said, finding himself getting tired of explaining such a silly reaction over and over again. He wasn't proud of it, but he had been out of options at the time.

"That was very unwise. Should you have missed and hit the human instead-"

"I know." Bumblebee said stiffly, interrupting Prowl who momentarily stared agape at the scout who had been so bold to cut him off. "And I _don't_ miss." It appeared as if Prowl was searching for another one of his madly passive-aggressive retorts, but thankfully Optimus Prime found this an opportune time to end the bickering.

"Wheeljack is searching for anything Teletraan-1 may have picked up during the time the hologram was discovered. Otherwise there was no way he would had seen it. If Bumblebee and Allison had not been out there, it's very likely we would have never known of the hologram's presence at all." Prime explained, and Bumblebee felt some strength return to him at the thought that their error could have actually been fortunate. It would have been far worse if they hadn't encountered the hologram and it had been allowed to pass through the Autobot's security.

Wheeljack made a startled noise akin to a squeaking gear, causing all optics to turn to him abruptly as he broke away from his rigid examinations. He started tapping at Teletraan-1's main surface, maximizing a holo-screen above the horizontal panel that was the computer's main interface. When Wheeljack turned he had the screen docked to his forearm as he began rifling through the streams of numbers and symbols scrolling across the surface.

"I found it," he said gloomily, shaking his head. "Tricky, tricky... they've gotten smart. I don't think that even I could have even come up with something like this. Well, maybe I would have, but the applications would have been vastly different. Of course, I'm not a rampaging megalomaniac." Wheeljack paused, using his hand to localize a string of data and maximize it across the holo-screen's interface, revealing an erratic wavelength diagram much like the unique resonance of a spark signature. Numbers and symbols rolled across the screen beneath it like a complex mathematical equation. "The signature wasn't there, and yet it was at the same time."

"I don't understand, Wheeljack. How is that even possible?" Prime asked, voice halting with uncertainty, which was a rarity for the Autobot leader. Wheeljack waved a hand to dismiss the very idea that he had in fact been careless enough to miss something.

"It wasn't there in the sense that I wouldn't have seen it even if I'd actively been searching for it specifically. Well, not until later anyway, when Teletraan-1 finally detected it. However, since the signature had to come from somewhere, and the fact that Allison and Bumblebee saw it with their own optics, indicates that it _was_ there, just not until... well, _now._" The blank looks that followed gave Wheeljack pause, forcing him to consider his next words very carefully. Prowl's expression was one of calm, but the way his jaw plates twitched indicated that he was thinking of ways to punish the engineer for incompetence even if there was none to be found. This meant Wheeljack would need to be absolutely clear. He concentrated as he tried to think of a way to communicate his explanation in a way that wouldn't result in a severe beating.

"Holograms usually carry the same kind of digital signature as their physical counterparts. Under normal circumstances they should be detectable. However..." He gestured at the read-out floating before him as he walked to Prime, angling the holo-screen to show him. "This showed up on our scans only a few nano-cycles ago."

"Is this the signature?"

"Yes. The only conclusion I can come up with is that the Decepticons have come up with some sort of forced latency in their signature packets. They can somehow suppress their own signature and slow down its transmission time. That's why it didn't show up until now." Wheeljack shrugged. "That's my theory anyway."

"I still don't follow," Prime said.

Wheeljack pulled up a diagram on his monitor. It showed a series of lines that were close to each other. They moved in a wave-like pattern, bobbing up and down. "Think of it as a kind of data compression. The Decepticons have somehow found a way to compress their holo-signature into a kind of bundle. Holo-signatures are usually long and wavy, and move up and down. The way this compression works is different." The image on the screen changed to show the waves condensing into a spherical shape. It looked like a dark ball. "It takes that line and compartmentalizes it into a tiny, bound piece of data that's so small, it's essentially untraceable. The waves still move around, still transmitting, just in a different form."

"I think I'm with you. But why would they suddenly become traceable now?"

"Data like this isn't manageable if the hologram is to be sustained. I ran a few simulations, and I wasn't able to maintain the shape of the compression for very long." Wheeljack pointed to his monitor, which showed the spherical data moving around erratically. "Over time, the data bundle becomes unwound. It unravels and flattens out to a lateral form. Then the signature's waves gradually increase until it reaches its original form. With it, the size of the data's digital information also increases, which is one of the flags which triggers our sensors." Wheeljack looked back at Prime. "This must take a while, because it wasn't until after the Decepticon was gone that the signature became apparent."

Prime thought a while, trying to make sense of the information. "If that's correct, that's not a desirable development," Prime said solemnly, "Is there any way we can combat it?"

"I can run a few simulations, but unless you can find a way to freeze time, I'm not sure it's going to be entirely feasible. I might be able to adjust our signature receivers to locate bundled data, but it's going to take a while. In the mean time, we might be best concentrating our efforts on improving our response time." Wheeljack said.

"Which would mean assume that a Decepticon could be in our building already, at all times." Prowl answered curtly. Despite the even nature of his voice, his optics were narrowed with grim acceptance of this idea.

Prime nodded. "In that case, we'll have to bolster our physical presence. If we cannot rely on our sensors, we'll just have to settle for the old fashioned method." Prime vented air. "Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise. This accidental discovery has provided us with a good lesson on the speed of our foe's ability to find new ways to attack. It's a lesson I would much rather learn sooner than later." Prime looked at Bumblebee. "Find the twins and let them know their patrols will have to be doubled."

"Oh man," Bumblebee said, venting air nervously. "Sunstreaker is not going to like this."


	8. Lost Causes and Memories

**Author's Note: Bit of a delay as I've had some things going on here that kept me from getting to work on this. Shorter chapter here, but there's going to be some pretty long chapters coming up.**

**As you may or may not have been able to tell, Sunstreaker is going to be pretty important coming up in terms of making things happen. Now I won't say how, as that would be spoilers. :)**

**Just watched the Transformers Prime season finale = Amazing. 3  
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**Thanks for reading!**

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><p>"Are you out of your <em>mind<em>?"

Sunstreaker stared down at Bumblebee with a look of incredulity in his intense cobalt optics. Even though the scout lacked the height to sufficiently intimidate the Autobot warrior, Bumblebee stood his ground, not even so much as flinching when Sunstreaker came uncomfortably close. "We already spend enough time out there as it is on this Primus-forsaken rock. Warping my metal under this ridiculous sun is the last thing I want." Sunstreaker growled angrily, and Bumblebee's optics shifted nervously, the only outward sign that he was even remotely threatened by Sunstreaker's more aggressive mood.

"Sorry Sunstreaker, but it's Prime's orders."

"Yeah well Prime can-"

"Secure that, Sunstreaker." Ratchet's voice came out firm and loud as he walked into the mess hall to find Bumblebee staring down a flustered Sunstreaker, who was flanked by his brother. Sideswipe was uncharacteristically mute, watching the two Autobots argue with a look of hesitant detachment as if not wanting to get involved. He looked up at Ratchet and frowned, asking the medic with optics alone to break up the verbal brawl that he was unwilling himself to jump into.

Ratchet shook his head in frustration, venting air loudly as he got between the two Autobots, who had been dangerously close to turning the verbal altercation into something more physical. Sunstreaker had the _look_. "Patrols aren't something we do for _fun_. Neither is anything Prime orders us to do. Defense of this installation is paramount to our continued survival."

Sunstreaker scoffed. "Installation? This place is a dump, and it's so small." Sunstreaker gave a lofty sniff. "Just like the rest of this planet."

"You can think that all you want, Sunstreaker." Bumblebee chimed in. "This is our home for now. What kind of home wouldn't you fight to protect?"

"This one", Sunstreaker mumbled under his breath.

"You don't mean that," Bumblebee scowled, shaking his head in exasperation.

Sideswipe remained silent, only offering so much as an audible vent of air as he sighed. While it was well known he was more accepting of the idea of being on Earth than Sunstreaker, the Autobot wasn't exactly going to leap to side against his brother in an argument. Eventually Sideswipe rested his hand on Sunstreaker's shoulder.

"Ratchet and Bumblebee are right, brother. The Decepticons are getting closer with each passing day, and it's our duty to do what we can to keep them at bay. If that means a little extra leg work, then we can handle that."

"I'm aware of all that," Sunstreaker rolled his eyes and waved Sideswipe's hand away, muttering. "Fine. If our leader wants us to wander around in the forest, I won't be the one to criticize his sage advice."

"It's not advice, Sunstreaker, it's an order. And you _will_ follow through with it." Ratchet's voice indicated the matter was not open for rebuttal, and Sunstreaker grudgingly acknowledged this with a silent grimace. "You'll follow your designated routes, but we'll be expanding into the surrounding quadrants." He motioned to both Sunstreaker and Sideswipe as he turned to leave. "This starts right now, by the way. So get out there and keep your optics peeled. And for the love of Cybertron, if you see something radio it in first. The last thing I want is to be welding your sorry carcasses back together."

Ratchet turned to go, venting. "Now I have a very confused human I need to help down off of a repair berth, but I better not see you two lazing about in here when I get back."

The three of them watched Ratchet leave. Sunstreaker turned to Sideswipe with an intense scowl, optics darkened.

"Who made the old scrap-pile in charge?"

"Hearing is _still_ excellent." The three younger Autobots jumped as Ratchet's voice echoed down the hallway into the room. Sideswipe had a look of lofty amusement on his face, but Sunstreaker stood agape as he watched the door, half expecting Ratchet to come storming back in.

Bumblebee narrowed his optics at both of them, mouth open to speak but unsure of what to say. Sideswipe turned and gave Bumblebee a half smile.

"I heard you fired at the hologram," Sideswipe said with a snicker, and Bumblebee felt the cables on his neck twitch with annoyance.

"Why does everyone feel the need to quantify that? I did, fine, but you weren't out there, so be quiet," Bumblebee stepped forward and jabbed a finger into Sideswipe's chest plate to drive the point home. Sideswipe leaned back with a lop-sided smile, arms raised in defeat.

"Okay, fine, I'm just teasing you. The little squirt is okay, at least?" Sideswipe asked, ignoring the irritated cough from Sunstreaker next to him.

"_Squirt_? What, you mean Allison? Ugh, yes, she's fine. You go ahead and call her that to her face and see how long you live. Wheeljack will be on you like a ton of scrap before you even know you're on the floor." Bumblebee said, turning to leave. "I need to help Wheeljack. Don't you two have a patrol you need to get to?" the scout waved a hand over his shoulder in dismissal, wanting to remove himself from the room as quickly as possible. He ignored their groans of annoyance as he made his way to the door, far more concerned with the prospect of being a potential test dummy for Wheeljack's experimentation then dealing with the twins any longer.

* * *

><p>Allison didn't know what time it was when she fell asleep on the couch in the rec room. After Ratchet had finally returned to help her off the repair berth, she hadn't known what to do with herself. The other Autobots were absorbed in whatever this new calamity was, and Sari was at school, so it was the first time in a long while that she had been left to her own devices. She had tried her hand at playing some of the video games for a while (particularly enthralled with a third-person space shooter), and that had proved to be a fantastic time-waster until Bumblebee had emerged from the depths of the base.<p>

They hadn't spoken for long, save for a few passing words of concern over what had happened. Wheeljack was aware of what had transpired in the woods surrounding the base, and he'd apparently found a way to detect it in the future, hopefully. The scout had apologized, more times then he'd needed to, and he'd asked her if she was alright at least a dozen times more. Allison laughed it off, thankful for his concern, however unnecessary. She was simply eager to talk to Wheeljack because she had missed him, and she wanted to get his impressions on what was going on.

Bumblebee likely would have been there apologizing and making sure she was still in one piece forever until finally, it was time for him to pick Sari up from school. Surprised at how much time had passed since the morning's events she hadn't even realized that the girl would be coming back soon.

With that Bumblebee had departed, and when he'd returned Sari had been more than excited to tell Allison all about what had happened with the volcano that they'd made the night before. Shockingly enough, the teacher hadn't at all been suspicious of the amazing craftsmanship and technical detail. Perhaps being the daughter of a legitimate genius lent some credibility to the scheme, and Allison had the feeling the girl had a lot more intelligence hiding underneath her exuberant exterior.

While Allison had let the girl chatter on about all the reactions and praise she'd gotten at school, Bumblebee had given her _the look_. It was a look that told Allison to stay quiet about what had happened earlier. A look that meant he would tell the younger girl on his own, when the time was appropriate. Allison got the sense that this was something serious enough that would warrant everyone just up and moving to a location that wasn't compromised. Being uprooted again just when she thought she would finally get settled was not a pleasing thought, but she supposed it was better than getting ambushed and slaughtered in the middle of the night.

Allison, not having a lot of experience with kids in her past life, was somewhat surprised and caught off guard by Sari's excited attempts at conversation. It was like the girl had no trouble at all accepting her as part of the normal routine, surprising considering Allison hadn't been out in the open for longer than 48 hours.

It was only until Bumblebee had shooed her away with loving care and an urgent need to get her working on her homework, did the girl stop talking long enough to be hoisted delicately off the ground. Sari protested vehemently that it was Friday, and she shouldn't have to do her homework, but she was politely reminded that doing it now would save her the trouble Sunday night. Allison heard them continue to argue this point in jest as they disappeared down the hallway, and she watched them go. Bumblebee likely had more urgent things to do anyway at that moment, but hadn't let it show on his face.

They'd left her alone, and she'd continued with her games for a little while before getting restless. Allison had tried to find something to watch on TV, even stopping on the news long enough to see if she could find any suspiciously hidden Decepticon activity being reported on, but there was nothing. Only depressing, terrible, human-born tragedy and celebrity gossip. She wasn't entirely sure which was worse.

Eventually Allison had dozed off. The sudden presence of someone very large hovering over her had disturbed her subconscious enough to wake her, but the feeling vanished as soon as it had manifested. She slowly woke, rubbing at her eyes as she sat up in time to see a shadow disappear around the corner into Wheeljack's laboratory. He had been watching her, and had probably opted not to disturb her. Allison had been trying not to fall asleep for that very reason, because she knew that Wheeljack's gentlemanly manners would prompt him to leave her alone rather than bother her.

Allison had gotten up and followed him. The still quiet in the entire base had kept her from calling after him. It was just a feeling, like the tense calm of the atmosphere was fragile, and any sudden noise or movement would throw everything into chaos. Instead, she'd silently hurried after him into the lab. As soon as she'd turned the corner she'd stopped, unsure of what she was looking at.

Wheeljack had his back turned to the door, wing panels slightly drooped in what might have been the picture of someone who felt emotionally disrupted. He was standing at the mystery item draped under the cloth, the one item that he said he wasn't ready to finish.

This time, Allison noted that the cloth itself was thrown slightly back, revealing something of the mechanical structure beneath. Allison didn't know what she was looking at, but Wheeljack must have. He stood there staring for a long while, and something about the wilted nature of his posture made it seem inappropriate to interrupt him. As much as Allison wanted to talk to him, this seemed like a private moment where he thought he was alone. A quick and silent retreat seemed to be in order.

"I didn't want to wake you," Wheeljack said just as Allison turned to go. She cursed to herself mentally, wondering how in the world he had known she was there. She thought she'd been completely silent, but that probably didn't matter. He probably had other ways of sensing her that she wouldn't be able to avoid.

"I wasn't asleep..." Allison partially lied, stopping mid-stride. She turned to see that Wheeljack had replaced the cloth to its draped position but he had yet to turn around. "I was actually waiting for you... but if you're busy that's fine. We can talk tomorrow..."

"No, I'm not." Wheeljack straightened, his movements abrupt enough to hint at the idea that he was trying to hide his real mood. He turned without looking at her, and his expression of concern mixed with hesitation prompted Allison to open her mouth without really thinking.

"You're upset."

Wheeljack's eyes went alight for a moment with surprise, and he rubbed absently at his chest.

"What makes you say that?"

"You're not as subtle as you think you are. Besides, your little wings are always down when you're upset. They're kind of up and out more when you're angry... like this." Allison gestured with her hands, ignoring Wheeljack's quirked brow as he watched her with obvious curiosity. "I bet you thought I didn't notice those things."

"How very perceptive of you," Wheeljack chuckled brightly, walking over to his work table. Allison noted that his back fins perked, probably a conscious effort to appear more relaxed. "A keen observatory eye... a quality of a good scientist..." Wheeljack trailed off absently, seeming to continue in his own head as he gestured silently with his hand. He started tapping at the main monitor, bringing up sprawls of text and symbols.

"Except for the part where you forgot I'm not a scientist," Allison said, climbing over one of the giant cables in the doorway to walk closer into the room. She was drawn to the machine under the cloth again, but she hesitated halfway into the room, feeling dwarfed by her relative size to everything else in there.

"Not yet," Wheeljack said, eliciting a nervous cough from Allison.

"Are you suggesting that you're going to teach me?" She was partially sarcastic, but was having a hard time voicing her discomfort at this notion that Wheeljack might have gotten in his head. As marvelous as he was, she had misgivings about how good of a teacher he would be, as he wasn't the best at sticking to a single topic for longer than a few minutes at best. "I suppose if you enjoy taking on lost causes."

"Nonsense. If you put your mind to it you can accomplish anything." Wheeljack paused and gave Allison a glimmering stare of approval before he narrowed his eyes playfully at her. "If you want to learn about _science_..." Wheeljack said with emphasis, matching her sarcasm. "...We can start right now. I have a little project for us..." He continued.

Wheeljack seemed suddenly struck with the concept of tutoring her in science, and he was approaching it with the same sense of enthusiasm he threw into his actual projects. But while Wheeljack was never shy to explain things to her or show her his projects, he was being so direct in it now that made it extremely obvious to her that he was skirting around the issue. The lack of subtlety only made her want to get to the root of it even more, and she tried to ferret the answer from him.

"I wish you would tell me what that is..." Allison gestured to the device under the cloth, and Wheeljack followed her gesture and looked. He sighed, and for a moment he looked irritated as he turned back to her. It was clear that he wasn't going to address the question willingly.

"Wheeljack, how long have you known me now? What have we been through together? You can be open with me about stuff like this. After all, you seem to know everything about my life so it seems only fair." She realized she was being extremely forward with him, and she knew that if someone was pestering her to show them personal items she had in her closet she would be somewhat guarded too. She decided to change her tactics.

"Look...I'm sorry. If you don't want to talk about it that's up to you." Allison felt a little embarrassed that she was pushing for Wheeljack to disclose personal things, but it was hard to not feel curious. She truly _wanted_ to know, if only because she cared about him so much that seeing him hurt was upsetting. She was also intrigued. This thing had history, she could tell, and she could only imagine where it had been, only to rest on some dusty Earth desk.

Wheeljack had a disapproving look on his face that made her swallow hard. She stared at the device with a little shame, but was surprised when Wheeljack spoke up.

"No, I suppose you're right. I guess I've just had too much time to think, that's all. Too much time to reflect... and ponder..." Wheeljack said as his face softened. He was wringing his hands together, a gesture that was common for the Autobot when he was nervous. "Alright, come here." He beckoned for her to come closer.

"You aren't going to tickle me again are you? I don't trust you." He'd done it once, and she'd nearly cracked a rib. "Because you look like you're going to." Allison was joking in attempt to bring light to the situation; trying to test his mood. Thankfully she only received a mischievous glare in return that made her relax.

"What makes you think I would do such a thing? That hurts. Come here." He waved at her again, this time more forcefully, but his eyes were glimmering with pleasure. It was something of a relief to see the life return to his eyes, because his more sullen moods just didn't suit the Autobot.

Allison walked towards Wheeljack with a sigh of content as he knelt down to meet her. Assuming he meant to put her on his work table she stepped into his hand, biting her lip as the now-too-familiar sense of vertigo hit her as he stood. She half stepped, half fell onto the table, head still spinning slightly as she barely noticed Wheeljack try to steady her with a hand until she felt her own touch the warm metal of his finger. He looked at her with sympathetic eyes as she partially tumbled into a cross-legged position on the surface.

Wheeljack watched her for a long moment, body very still as if there was something he desperately wanted to say. This look from Wheeljack typically meant that there was something intensely upsetting on his mind, because his eyes had a very piercing, focused look as if his brain was working hard to figure out what to say.

Finally Wheeljack blinked out of his entranced stare and heaved a deep sigh, turning to walk back to the device hiding beneath the cloth. He rested his hand on the covered machine and looked over his shoulder at Allison.

"This little thing represents an important part of my life. One I'm not ready to put to rest."

"That's why you're not ready to finish it."

"I guess that's true." Wheeljack removed the sheet from the device with a small flourish, revealing the strange looking contraption hidden underneath. He looked at Allison, his eyes expectant. "Well?"

"Oh..." Allison feigned amazement. "It's...it's very..." She shook her head, unable to find a fitting general descriptive. "...Technical." Weak, but it was the best she could muster.

"You don't know what it is, do you?" Wheeljack asked with a small laugh, though he obviously knew this already.

"I'm sorry, Wheeljack, I really don't," Allison said, scratching her head absently. "But I can tell it's complicated, and well... important. What is it?"

Wheeljack closed his eyes for a moment, then turned back to the device. It was a solid block of a machine with buttons and switches of varying sized and colors. There were markings near each from what Allison could see from her position on the table, but the alien scrawl was completely foreign to her and just that: Alien. This was probably written Cybertronian.

"This... this is a com-link amplification module. In the under-city passages of Praxus communication was often sparse and broken due to the high-frequency radio waves of the main electrical grid. Communication was delayed because of all the interference, and it had to be bounced off of relay stations at intervals of three clicks, but this still made urgent message transmission into something of a problem.." Wheeljack stopped, and Allison could tell that he was weighing her expression to gauge if he had lost her at some point. She nodded to indicate that she understood.

"Axleon had started this, intending it to amplify com-link signals at the first interval to speed up their transmission times and cover a greater distance. This was so we could communicate more quickly. I promised him before I left for Iacon that I would finish it. Then he died."

"I'm so sorry, Wheeljack." There weren't really any words to offer Wheeljack with this knowledge. Truthfully, Allison had no idea what to say at all. At that moment it was almost like Wheeljack was a complete stranger to her.

Wheeljack was silent for a moment, staring at the device as he was presumably lost in thought. There wasn't really anything to say. There weren't really any words to describe how _sad_ she felt for him, but his emotional inaccessibility at that moment kept Allison from saying anymore. Instead, she watched Wheeljack with a hesitant eye, waiting for some kind of prompt from him to help her come up with something that was appropriate.

"When I received the news that Praxus was hit, I didn't want to finish it. Perhaps I felt that if I finished it, I would forget... and I wasn't ready to. I'm still not."

"I'm sure Axleon would want you to complete it and move on, Wheeljack."

Wheeljack vented air. "I know. It's just, once this is done, what else is there to do with it? It's not like we can actually use it for anything."

"Hey, you're smart. I'm sure you'll think of something to do with it." Allison prompted trying to bring his mood up. Wheeljack was stroking the device thoughtfully, and appeared to be considering this very idea. After a few moments of silent contemplation where Allison waited, he finally spoke.

"Well, I guess with all the problems we're having with holo-signals, I suppose I could manipulate its receivers to pick up non-communication based waves as well. Who knows? Maybe we can even find some way for it to amplify the bundles with it and restore them to their regular frequency?" Wheeljack stared thoughtfully at the device, then at Allison. "I'm proud." he seemed to be beaming.

"You came up with the idea, not me, but that sounds great," Allison said, having not even the slightest clue what he'd just said but decided not to share it. She didn't want to spoil his fun, because he certainly looked a great deal more excited than he had minutes prior.

"Truthfully, if you hadn't asked, this would probably still be sitting here who knows how long. Unfinished and well," Wheeljack paused. "_Useless_ really. If I can put it to good use, then perhaps I can lay these things to rest finally." He stopped again, and gave her a heavy look of understanding. "Thank you, Allison."

"I didn't want to stir up any bad memories you know," Allison said with a faint smile as her heart fluttered. The gratitude clear on his face as his panels turned rosy made her blush.

"Nonsense. It will keep me busy. There's a lot of things that are keeping me busy, but I'm afraid the Pendulum will have to take a back-seat for now. If the Decepticons are coming for us, then having Cybertron's coordinates won't exactly do us any good if we're all dead." Wheeljack walked back to his worktable and rested his hands on either side of her. "It's going to take some time. I have extremely limited tools here, so I'm not even sure it'll work. I guess it doesn't hurt to try, eh?"

"I suppose it doesn't. If it keeps your spirits up, then that's all that's important to me," Allison said, mock-punching his arm playfully. "Being moody doesn't suit you, Wheeljack."

"I know," Wheeljack sighed heavily, the brightness of his eyes dimming as his mood dipped once again. Allison frowned at him, letting her hand rest against his. "I'm sorry Allison. I should have seen it. I really should have. If you hadn't been with Bumblebee... or if they had decided to attack... I don't know that-"

"It's okay, nothing happened and we're all fine. The important thing is you see it now," Allison said as Wheeljack looked down at her hand, his own shifting slightly. She patted her hand against his, not wanting to let Wheeljack brood any longer. "I missed my big white knight today, so I'd rather not dwell on what-ifs. In the end he figured out how to find the monsters so we'll see them coming next time." Allison smiled. "What was the project you had?"

Thankfully, Wheeljack perked up at this, the prospect of delving into something more cerebral allowing him to focus on other things. He held up a hand as if to silence any further questions and walked back over to what Allison had by now guessed was his main computer terminal. She watched him for a moment interact with the monitor before he finally picked up one of the flat, rectangular screens she'd seen Prowl holding before. He walked over to her with it and set it down behind her, motioning with his finger for her to turn around. Confused by this, Allison half-turned, shaking her head at him in inquiry.

"Want to help me hunt for Decepticons?"

"Come again?" Allison asked, looking at the strange, transparent screen on the table behind her. It was covered in scrolling symbols and roman numerals, and absolutely none of it held any real meaning for her.

"After we discovered how the Decepticons were masking their holo-signatures, I initiated a bounce scan on the entire area surrounding our base."

"What's a bounce scan?" Allison asked.

"Simply put, it's a log of every scan sweep Teletraan-1 has performed the last 48 hours. I need to comb through it and find other hits of bundled data... see how many times they've slipped past and we haven't seen them. I'll find the fraggers now." Wheeljack was staring at his sensor board, looking extremely proud of himself. Allison's head, however, was spinning with confusion.

"Wheeljack, I can't read this," Allison said, gesturing to the glowing board. "I don't know how I can help you at all."

"I'll teach you Allison, it's easy. Trust me."


	9. Rude Awakening

**Short chapter this time around. I'm going to try posting a few chapters in quick succession to start getting the ball moving. Some intro to the twins here. They're not completely based off of one single canon or another, but mostly a conglomeration of different things I've picked up and my own interpretation.**

**Italics = com link chatter**

**Hasbro/Takara**

* * *

><p>It had only taken thirty Earth minutes to teach Allison to find the pattern anomalies in the scan read-outs; the pattern anomalies that pointed to the bundled data packets, though it had been thirty minutes of extreme human frustration. Allison had at several points nearly given up on what Wheeljack was trying to teach her, as she pushed to remember all the little details that he tried to explain. The Autobot could read the frustration in her eyes that she was trying hard to hide, but doing poorly at it. She claimed to be such an expert at reading his emotions, but Wheeljack could make the same claims about himself, though Allison was far less subtle than she thought she was.<p>

In the end Wheeljack's patience had won out, and she had finally accepted the fact that she _could_ learn to spot the missing sequence in Teletraan-1's static sensor read-out. That missing sequence would be replaced by an anomalous string of numbers that, when decrypted, would hold the bundle of resonance data. Allison had been enthusiastic about the endeavor for a while, until she had eventually fallen asleep on his arm not more than an hour later.

He had let her remain until beginning to nod off himself, and finally deciding it was time to put the task to rest for the time being. He'd gently prodded her awake so that she could relocate to the comfort of her own room.

"Did I fall asleep?"Allison murmured, still half entranced as her eyes fluttered with fatigue. Wheeljack rumbled a soft affirmative before gently sweeping her onto his hand. She seemed to understand the gesture and half scooted, half rolled onto his palm, where she curled up with a sigh before speaking again. "Did you find anything?"

"The Decepticons have been busy. There were three more hits in the last 48-hours. It will be best if you and Sari remain inside until we can better decide what is going to happen from here,"Wheeljack said as he walked her out to the rec room.

"Is it safe here?"Allison yawned, the lack of alarm in her voice a dramatic contrast to the weight her words carried. Wheeljack paused for a moment as that sunk in. Truthfully, that wasn't something he had thought about.

"For now, I don't think they're mobilizing... not yet. We may need to come to a decision about that very soon though,"Wheeljack said, stopping short of the side rooms where the humans slept. Allison was more alert as he knelt down to deposit her back onto the ground. He remained there for a moment, kneeling as she watched him. His fins twitched methodically as he pondered his next response. "From what I've seen, it would seem they are as new to this kind of reconnaissance as we are. I think, for now, they're playing it safe; sticking to the extremities and testing how long they can go undetected. We have a lot to discuss in terms of what to do..." Wheeljack blinked, pausing as Allison's brow furrowed with a frown.

"You look tired. I think you work too hard."

"I'm afraid I'm still not in the best of shape,"Wheeljack said, shifting uncomfortable. He pulled at his mask absently. "I'm more accustomed to simply letting myself crash into recharge. Can't get much accomplished sleeping, eh?"he said thoughtfully.

"Well, right now I'd like to do very little, with the exception of being curled up and slipping into complete oblivion,"Allison said with an exhausted snort, waving. She took a step towards him and he reached out his hand instinctively to greet her offer of touch. Wheeljack rumbled pleasantly when she patted the thinner plating of his finger. "Good night. Wake me, please, if everything goes to hell."

"You'll be the first to know about it,"Wheeljack said sarcastically, but he did not share with her the deeply troubling concern he felt within his Spark. If they were met with a full-scale assault, it was likely it would be for the purpose of completely wiping them out. Although being taken prisoner was not out of the question, it wasn't a better alternative. Wheeljack somehow doubted Megatron would be concerned with taking humans prisoners, or letting them go. He would kill them, and would likely make a dramatic display out of it for all of them to witness as punishment. Megatron was not completely beyond killing innocents for the sake of making an example out of them.

This incited a small stirring of terror from within Wheeljack's spark. It was like a flash of awareness that jolted through his systems, making him vent air heavily. It was not an image he wanted to entertain, and it was more important now than ever that he do his job and keep them all safe; Allison especially. She didn't seem to see this in his face, which was just as well. She was exceptionally good at reading his moods, and one normal occasions he would have been proud. This however, he didn't want to discuss with her.

"I'm sure I will."Allison said. "Don't worry. I'll hold them off for you."

Wheeljack smiled, watching for a moment as Allison retreated through the doorway of her room. She shut the door behind her, and Wheeljack lingered for a moment as if there was something else. There was nothing but near silence around him, and he could only hear the subtle movements of Allison moving from within the room. Thinking this an appropriate time to leave, Wheeljack turned to go with shoulders heavy from the weight of what was before him.

* * *

><p>It had been hours since they had first discovered the Decepticon signals in the woods surrounding the base; Hours since Sunstreaker and Sideswipe has been ordered to return to their patrol of the surrounding area. It had been mind-numbingly dull for what had felt like an eternity, and the only real conversation Sunstreaker had was with Sideswipe, who for all intents and purposes seemed more distracted than usual. It was perhaps the new problem that they faced: the possibility that the Decepticons were untraceable and lurking in the shadows, possibly <em>anywhere<em> at any time.

Whatever was on Sideswipe's mind, he wasn't sharing it, and Sunstreaker wasn't asking. Now was not the time to get all warm and fuzzy, not when they were a hair-trigger away from blasting away whatever 'Con stood in their path.

This is what found them creeping slowly through the woods surrounding the base, all scans, optics and audios trained tightly on what was around them. The meatbags couldn't hide their own ridiculously obvious bio signatures, which meant that accidentally blundering into them in bi-pedal mode was not going to be a problem. Decepticons who could now hide their signatures on the other hand, were a different matter, which made them tread carefully.

A few miles to the east, Sideswipe was creeping through the same woods following a fresh trail. They had been out here ever since Wheeljack had discovered a new signal less than an earth hour prior, one that was allegedly "live." It was the first bundled packet caught while in the act of unraveling, and they had acted on it immediately. Prime had ordered Sunstreaker and Sideswipe to trap whoever it was and bring them in for questioning. How like Prime, wanting to ask _questions_.

Sunstreaker toyed with his blaster distractedly, if only for a moment as he thought about the absurdity of that notion. No 'Con would simply "ask questions." They'd maim and destroy, and in the off-chance they did want some kind of intel, they'd make sure one was more than compliant to talk before even thinking of interrogation. Simply bringing someone in for a chat was not Sunstreaker's idea of justice.

Of course, Prime hadn't exactly said what condition the bounty had to be in. A thought struck him, and he opened up a communication channel with his brother.

_"Hey, 'Sides, Bumblebee tried to shoot at it right? And it didn't do anything?" _Sunstreaker asked over the com, and almost immediately he felt the stirring of his brother's attention revert to him. It was a fluttering of awareness in the back of his processor, made all the more noticeable by the bond they shared through their sparks

_"What kind of question is that? They're holos. Of course you cant shoot 'em. There's nothing to shoot. It's just light and other trickery." _Sideswipe was being smarmy, and Sunstreaker could imagine that he was smirking to himself. _"You know this already."_

_"Yeah I know. But I'm wondering if there's more to these new ones than meets the eye. I mean, that first one, the one that attacked the fleshy... That one had some sort of weapon, right?"_

_"It was probably an illusion, meant to scare her and Bumblebee. Come on 'Sunny, this is basic tech._" Sideswipe paused._ "And the fleshy has a name, you know."_ He sounded annoyed, but just for a brief moment. Sideswipe sent a brief wave of understanding to Sunstreaker over the com link that was more of gesture of peace than anything else. Even so, Sunstreaker's spark fluttered in response as he sent his own acknowledgment back. His wasn't quite as fluffy, but it would do.

"A_nd you _are_ a master of tech after all." _Sunstreaker snorted through the link, but felt a pang of disappointment at the missed chance of getting to do some maiming of his own. Taking his hand from his blaster he continued moving. There was a rumble of disapproval from Sideswipe through the comm but it was short-lived.

_"Smart aft,"_ Sideswipe said, not at all noticing that Sunstreaker had ignored his earlier comment about the human. _"We'll get to stomp on some 'Cons soon enough."_ There was an eagerness in his voice that Sunstreaker shared. It dropped quickly, and Sunstreaker got the impression that Sideswipe was thinking of something to say.

Finally after a long period of silence, Sideswipe spoke up. _"I don't think Allison likes me."_ There was a whisper of guilt, or _something_ in Sideswipe's voice, but it was hard for Sunstreaker to read because he was too busy rolling his optics.

_"Who cares?"_ Sunstreaker grunted as he kept moving forward, but this audible response could not be heard over the com link. There was a wave of surprise from Sideswipe followed by a slightly garbled retort as his brother tried to hastily throw together his response.

_"What do you mean _who cares_? I do. You don't like her?_"

_"No."_ The answer was as short as it was sullen.

_"Why not?"_

_"Just don't."_ Sideswipe was starting to get on his nerves.

_"I don't understand why you feel that way. It's important to Wheeljack, just like it's important to Bumblebee. They're family, and it should be important to us too."_ Sideswipe said, sounding exasperated by the tone of his voice over their link. _"You might actually like someone if you bother talking to them." _He added, sounding far too much like Prime.

_"What those two do in their private time isn't my problem, and it shouldn't be yours either. Besides, what's the point? They're all going to die in like fifty earth years, but if they want to waste their time that's their deal." _Sunstreaker responded, feeling little sympathy as he vented air audibly. A fine cloud of mist wafted around him as the moisture from his vents hit the chilled air. Pressing forward, he shook his head to himself.

Sideswipe did not respond, possibly hurt by his words, but Sunstreaker did not pay any further attention to this. There were more important things to worry about than what a couple of fleshy humans felt about them. In either case, he didn't speak again.

Time passed, each minute just as dull and uneventful than the previous one. They had been out traipsing in the cold, wet, disgusting woods for hours, and they had nothing to show for it. Fed up, Sunstreaker stopped with a great shrug, straightening as he reached out to his brother again.

_"There's not a slaggin'thing out here. Wheeljack must have finally gone senile. It was supposed to be around here, wasn't it?" _Sunstreaker scratched his head idly, looking around with bored optics. Sideswipe did not immediately respond, but finally seemed to come to the same conclusion as his brother as he emerged out of the brush nearby. He made a whistling noise to signal his arrival, then jerked his head in the direction of home.

"Let's head back to base," Sideswipe said eventually. He was frowning, but Sunstreaker ignored it, knowing that his brother was just going to gripe about the humans some more if he indulged him. That was the last thing he wanted to talk about; a couple of filthy, germ-infested organics. It made his own systems crawl just thinking of them.

"There's nothing out here. Whatever it was is long gone now." Sunstreaker said after a while, eager to remove himself from the dirty environment once and for all.

* * *

><p>Sari Sumdac was asleep in her bed, dreaming of big yellow robots with wings that weren't very good at video games. In her dream, the yellow robot was hammering away on his own control pad, but it never seemed to help. Sari would always win, and she liked winning at video games. It was a pleasant dream, and she would have been content to lie there and experience it forever.<p>

A strange sensation filtered its way into Sari's awareness, momentarily pulling her from under the dream and into the waking world. On the cusp of sleep and wake-fullness, she raised her head from her pillow, eyes stuck shut and groggy. It was a weird, floaty feeling, like she was caught between two worlds with no ability to tell the difference between the two.

Slowly, the enticing promise of sleep and the prospect of returning to her dreaming unhindered beckoned her back. She lowered her head again, mumbling to herself.

_No, that wasn't right... _Sari's head raised again, a strange feeling still nagging at her, like there had been something really important she ought to pay attention to. She struggled to focus her eyes, blinking away the last remnants of sleep as she sat forward on her elbows. She couldn't see much at first in the darkened room, but she had definitely felt _something_. It was a kind of static sensation, like an electrical device nearby was emitting some kind of weird feeling. She rubbed her eyes with her hands.

When she moved her hands down, she screamed.


	10. I Ain't Afraid'a No Ghosts

**Hey a chapter...**

**I have to apologize, that I really can't write a kid's dialogue, so please bear with me. _**

**Thanks for reading! :)  
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**Hasbro/Takara**

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><p>Allison had woken that morning at a somewhat reasonable hour, finding that the first place she naturally gravitated to in Wheeljack's absence was the rec room couch. After spending some time looking desperately for something to feel useful, she'd given up, thinking that another run with one of the video games would satisfy her boredom for the time being. That proved to be untrue, and she had sought out the next nearest source of entertainment; a discarded book on the ground, hiding underneath the small table in front of the couch.<p>

As she expected it to be, it was was far from interesting. It was a short story that was supposed to be a thriller, but Allison was finding very little thrills in the small snippets she'd been able to bring herself to read. It was starting to make sense why the book had been thrown aside, but the only person she could imagine doing so was Sari. Even after reading just a few verses, Allison had a hard time following the diffuse writing, so she had doubts that Sari would have been able to stomach it before being bored to tears. Of course, Sari also seemed to have a very limited attention span, and had probably just skipped to the "good parts" few as they may have been.

Allison would have put it down right then to hunt for something else to do, but it was that moment that she heard the tell-tale thumping of steps moving in from the outside. Knowing exactly who it was entering in the main door, she tried to make herself look engrossed in the book in order to not be noticed. It was probably too late to run into her room without looking stupid, so she remained.

She wasn't entirely sure why she was avoiding contact with the twins, but she found that she had a habit of feeling shy when they were around. It could have been the fact that Sideswipe was too friendly, and behaved not entirely unlike an overly excitable child, or a really large dog that didn't quite know how to compensate for his size while rough-housing with children.

Then of course, it could have been because he was always joined at the hip to Sunstreaker, who looked like he might vomit every time Sideswipe spoke to her. His standoffish nature, as well as being annoying, seemed far more aggressive than Ratchet's gruff abruptness when she'd first met him. It was harder for her to break through something like that, made worse by the fact that the yellow Autobot apparently had no intention of talking to her. Today was apparently not going to be an exception.

She sensed that Sideswipe lingered near her as Sunstreaker continued forward. He didn't spare a look her way, but as she glanced up she could have sworn she saw him shaking his head. Frowning, Allison looked back down at her book in an effort to appear uninterested, but it didn't work. She heard the Autobot shift near her, and the next moment a great weight pressed against the back of the couch behind her as he knelt down.

"Is that a good book you're reading?" Sideswipe asked, his hand resting against the back cushion. Allison assumed it was his way of being friendly. This was more than anything offered by his surly brother who had stopped in the entrance to the hallway, impatiently waiting for his Sideswipe to stop fooling around.

"You caught me. Actually it's pretty terrible." Allison looked up at Sideswipe's expectant face as if he was waiting for something, and for the life of her she had the distinct feeling that she was missing something. "It does have robots in it, however. But compared to you they're really not very interesting."

"I bet they aren't," Sideswipe snorted derisively, his mouth quirking in a smile. "So why are you still reading it?"

"Well, I'm _not _now that you're here," Allison said, throwing the book to the side as she forced a wry smile. If she'd had a brother of any kind, or had hung out with any boys when she was a kid, she could imagine talking to them in a similar manner. She found that she couldn't stop herself from participating in the banter.

Sideswipe grinned impishly. "Are you making passes at me Allison?"

"Sorry Sideswipe. You're not my type." She laughed a little, grateful to have the ice between her and the youthful Autobot somewhat broken. "How was your hunt?" Allison asked.

"Pointless." The utterance had come from Sunstreaker, and while the fact he had acknowledged her presence at all was surprising, his pessimistic response was not. Allison gave him a startled glance when he spoke and found that his hotly glowing eyes were moving between her and Sideswipe.

"He's right, in a way," Sideswipe said. "But that's a good thing really." Sideswipe stopped, and Allison watched as he glanced up at his brother. He frowned lightly, something that seemed completely out of place on him. "Hey 'Sunny, I'll be there in a sec."

Sunstreaker only grunted, then turned to go. Allison could swear that his steps were more forced than usual as he disappeared down the hall. Part of her felt a little hurt that Sunstreaker didn't seem at all interested in at least conversing with her. It was like he'd already made up his mind about hating her before she'd even entered the picture. It was sad really, especially since his brother seemed to be making such a roguishly charming attempt at doing the opposite.

Allison found that now, being alone with Sideswipe, was rather awkward.

"Sunny? Is that some kind of brotherly nickname?" Allison attempted after a moment. "That's surprisingly cute for someone so...surly and unsociable."

"Uh... ah hah. Word of caution; don't call him that. He doesn't even like it when I call him that, true enough as it may be. He tolerates me, because he has no choice. But if you're anyone else though..."

"I got it," Allison said, somewhat surprised by the hint at violence over something as silly as a nickname. "He doesn't like to talk much does he?"

Sideswipe appeared to be grinding his jaw for a moment, as if to consider his next response very carefully.

"He's not as bad as he seems, honest... but he has a hard time with new people. Something kind of based on experience I guess." Sideswipe looked at her with a furrowed brow, and Allison had the sense that there was something more hidden beneath such a statement.

Before she could question this further, if it was even appropriate to question it, Sideswipe was talking again. "But I like meeting new people." The brightness in his eyes was a painfully obvious hint that he was talking about her.

"Am I new people?" She asked, giving up and joining in with his silly mood.

"Well, you're actually old news now. But you're still interesting."

"And that's what counts," Allison said. There was a moment of awkward silence as the two of them attempted to think of something to say. Eventually, Allison cleared her throat, realizing there was something that was far overdue to be said. Up until this point she'd been somewhat snobbish with him, and she wanted to address that.

"Listen, I didn't intend to ever be unapproachable. I'm just finally getting used to all this. I guess it's just taken some time to get used to being around everybody, so I'm sorry if it seemed like I was being rude. Maybe it's just because you were there when Ratchet, well, brought me back to life... so I was kind of scared to face you. I don't know why, but I was being silly I guess."

"Say no more, Allison, I gotcha," Sideswipe actually winked at her, and the gesture made her laugh. "You're secret is safe with me." He leaned back a little, sliding two fingers over his chest in an "x"motion like it was a promise.

"Well, it isn't exactly a secret. I'm okay with people knowing that I like you."

"So you _are_ making passes at me?"

"I might be..." Allison said jokingly, smile faltering as something caught her attention. There was a funny sensation at the back of her awareness, like the thrumming buzz of a television being powered on in the next room. It wasn't specifically a sound, but more of a pulse against her senses that made her stop and look around. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"Sideswipe shifted, looking around just as she did, but he shook his head at her. "I don't hear anything, Allison."

"Must have just been the heater or something..." Allison said turning back to Sideswipe who was looking at her with widened eyes.

"Heater? What's a heater?"

"Oh.. ah, are you seriously asking me this? It keeps buildings warm so that people don't get cold. Humans aren't particularly good at-"

A high-pitched, panicked shriek cut into their moment of intense discussion, causing them both to jump with a start. It was coming from Sari's room.

Instinctively, Allison jumped up from the couch and bolted to the door on the office block that the girl had been using as her room. She hadn't thought, but simply reacted to the noise. The girl's scream had barely died down by the time Allison got to the door, Sideswipe close on her heels.

"What's going on?" Sideswipe said, hovering over her, bouncing on his legs with excited uncertainty.

Just as soon as Allison was reaching her hands out to open the door, it flew open seemingly of its own accord, and the next moment a bundle of petrified little girl slammed into her mid-section. Allison nearly fell back from the shock and force of having a 12-year-old girl run head-first into her body, but she was stopped as Sideswipe pushed her forward in a hasty attempt to keep the two of them from crashing.

Sari was muttering something unintelligible as Allison tried to right herself and get a hold on the mess of words spilling out of the girl's mouth. It was then that she realized Ratchet had emerged from the hallway, followed closely by a startled Bumblebee and gravely concerned Optimus Prime.

"What... in the name of Primus... is going on here?" Ratchet said through gritted dental plates, grunting as Bumblebee pushed past him to come closer. The Autobot scout knelt down to place a worried hand on the girl's back, a distressed frown on his face.

"I don't know.. she just started screaming," Allison offered, giving up on peeling the girl from her stomach, who had seemed to find it as safe a place as any to hide. Sari finally whimpered meekly, her words muffled with her face pressed into Allison's shirt.

"I saw a ghost!"

There was a loud exhalation from Ratchet. "Pfft, nonsense, there's no such thing as ghosts. Ectoplasmic remnants of deceased organic matter transcending into the world of the living? Why, that's simply unfeasible. It was probably just paranoia." Ratchet stopped with narrowed eyes, and looked at Allison affronted as she shot him a terse glare to instill quiet. She turned down to the girl and tried to think of something comforting to say.

"Sari, you don't have to worry about ghosts. There are no ghosts here..."

"But there are! I saw one! There was a man standing by my bed... he woke me up and he didn't even have the decency to say anything to me... he just _stared_..." Sari had finally pulled herself away from Allison's stomach and looked up, cheeks smeared with shocked tears.

"Sari, you were just dreaming, that's all..."

It was clear that Ratchet was struggling to hold his tongue, and he was losing the battle dramatically. "A more likely explanation is that Sari's brain misfired as it pulled itself out of recharge, nothing more. It's probably sensitivity to electromagnetic fields, a result of being so close to Wheeljack's labor-"

"Ratchet, not now." Allison said, without even looking at him. She heard him shift as if he was about to respond, but he wisely stayed quiet. He wasn't exactly helping at that moment.

Allison glanced up at Bumblebee who's brow plates were furrowed in confusion. "Sari, let's go take a look, okay?" Allison gently pushed the girl off of her and gripped her hand, deciding it probably best at that moment to just walk into the girl's room to show her that nothing was there. It was a small room, and actually relatively clean. The young girl had furnished it with a small dresser that looked like it had seen better days. Various toys and gadgets that she had picked up along the way were piled up on the top of the dresser like they'd simply been thrown there in an effort to keep them off the floor. The girl was tidy, she'd give her that.

"But he's gone... and I don't want to go in there, not anymore." Sari said, pulling Allison back out from where she had stopped in the doorway. There really wasn't anything in the room, save for the furniture. There was no ghost, but Allison would have guessed that without even entering the room. She frowned as she let herself be pulled. Sari was looking at Bumblebee. "Can I sleep with you, 'Bee? Pleeeeeaasse?"

"Ah, I don't think that's a good idea Sari," Bumblebee made a nervous sound as if to cough. "You might fall and get hurt..."

"I won't I promise!"

"Sari..."Allison interrupted, a thought occurring to her. She didn't know where the feeling was coming from, but she had a sick feeling that she knew exactly what was going on. Perhaps it was just simply intuition born from everything that had happened yesterday, or she'd just magically acquired a sixth sense about the unusual, and _alien._ "I believe you. What did your ghost look like?"

Sari stopped and looked at her, frowning as her nose pinched up in disgust. Bumblebee momentarily forgotten, she shrugged.

"I... don't really remember, but he had this awful red shirt on..."

"Wait, he was wearing red?" Allison stopped, holding out her hand. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure. It was really obvious. Oh and he was smiling. I don't know what he wanted, and I don't _want_ to either," Sari said, rolling her eyes as if the terror was now forgotten, and only annoyance remained. "Geez, what's he think he's doing waking people up, that's rude!" Sari carried on for a few moments as Allison threw Bumblebee a fiery glare. The Autobot looked at her pathetically with no immediate response, but he didn't need to. He clearly knew _exactly_ what she was getting at.

"A red shirt, huh? You would think a _jacket_ would be more suitable for this time of year," Allison said loudly, looking between Bumblebee, Ratchet, and Optimus Prime sequentially. She patted Sari's shoulder, who only stopped talking long enough to turn and look as Allison walked past Bumblebee. "I think I might go ask Wheeljack what he thinks about _ghosts_." She heard Bumblebee mutter something to Sari as she walked towards Ratchet and Optimus Prime, who made no move to stop her. Looking up at them, she took a deep breath. "_Can_ I go see him?"

"I don't see why not." Optimus said, looking down at her with genuinely concerned eyes. He seemed to take a deep breath. "In fact, I think that might be a very good idea for all of us. Ratchet, come with us." The Autobot leader motioned with his hand for Ratchet to follow, urging Allison down the hallway simultaneously. For a moment she felt like a bug being pushed along by a giant hand.

"Me?" Ratchet sounded incredulous.

"Since you seem to be so versed in the phenomena of the paranormal, yes, I think that would be a good idea." Optimus was actually poking fun at Ratchet, and Allison couldn't keep a sharp laugh from escaping her throat. Of course, they were still within earshot of Sari, so Optimus' attempt at keeping up the charade was just as much intentional as it was meant in jest. Ratchet _harrumphed_ and shook his head in defeat, following them down the hallway.

Allison fell into step behind the two Autobots in the hallway, feeling it more appropriate that they lead the way rather than her. She wasn't entirely confident yet that she knew the layout anyhow, so she was perfectly content following Ratchet and Prime regardless. They would have overstepped her anyway, because their pace was brisk, and Allison found that she had to jog forward every few steps just to keep up with them.

They found Wheeljack still pouring over his work, sifting through various onscreen reports and mathematical simulations. When he heard them enter the room, he turned briefly and nodded to acknowledge them before immediately resuming his work as if nothing was amiss.

"Anything new?" He asked.

"Actually, yes," Optimus said. "Allison?" Wheeljack looked up at this, appearing startled. Allison could see him look around as if searching for her, before his eyes finally found her location at Ratchet's feet.

"Oh, Allison, I didn't know you were here too..." Wheeljack stopped and leaned back, perhaps sensing that Allison's frown meant this wasn't a social call. "Primus, what did I do?"

"_You_ didn't do anything. The Decepticons are inside the building, Wheeljack," Allison said solemnly. For a moment Wheeljack looked as if he was going to jump up and rush out of the room, hands moving to his back where she knew a gun was hidden tucked away between his fins. She held up her hands to stop him and explain. "Sari just saw a hologram in her bedroom. I'm willing to bet that nobody told her what was going on."

Wheeljack finally made up his mind about standing up and hastily got to his feet, the data pad that had been resting on the control surface before him dropping to the floor with a heavy _crack_.

"What? Tell me this is a joke..." His panels were blinking erratically, a direct indication of his startled disposition.

"I wouldn't joke about something like this. It was the same one I saw outside."

"It was decided that we would save this information from the youngling until we better understood what was happening." Optimus said, interjecting. It seemed a feasible explanation enough: to keep it from Sari and keep her from worrying about it until they knew what was going in. But, that was before they started creeping into their bedrooms.

"I'm going to just come out and say this, but this thing was in her room. She's a _little girl_. I mean, that's pretty sick. Why would a Decepticon start creeping around in children's bedrooms?" Allison asked with a frown. She felt that everyone should have been more alarmed then they were letting on, but maybe this was simply how they operated. If they had managed to find the building, how long did they have till things went south?

"I don't get it." Ratchet shook his head, looking at Wheeljack. "Getting into our perimeter is one thing; we know they're capable of that now. But into the _building_? And without setting off alarms? That's virtually impossible."

Wheeljack vented air. "It would seem the Decepticons have more capability with this new packet system than I realized."

"Why haven't they used this knowledge for an attack? Why just send one hologram in when they can all just come in and slaughter us?" Allison asked, trying to mentally work out any escape-route she could think of. There was a semi-hidden door next to the office block that they called their bedrooms, and it led into a back portion of the building where the old worker locker room and shower rack was... Surely there was a back door in there somewhere, or some kind of vent system to escape through. It would seem that the front door would be too risky if there was a full assault...

"Questions I have no answers for..." Wheeljack said absently. "Although the good news is, I've been tinkering with this comm link amplification module and I think I'm about to get it." Wheeljack said, motioning to the back of the room where Allison finally noticed the big metal box she'd spoken to Wheeljack about the day before. He _had_ been busy, because they'd just talked about it mere hours ago in regards to him modifying it. "I call it _CAMY_," he said with some flourish, beaming with pride. There was a collective silence around the room as nobody quite knew how to address the fact that Wheeljack had named his invention. It took a moment before it dawned on Allison.

"_C_omm link _A_mplification _M_odule," Allison repeated, noting that the extra _Y_ was probably just the Autobot thinking he was clever giving it a human name. "That's cute, Wheeljack." Allison said with a smile, trying to hold back the laugh that was going to give her away. He didn't skip a beat, missing her slightly teasing tone.

"I estimate I can get it ready by tonight, I just need some final parts from my lab, but I couldn't exactly walk outta here." He stopped when the blank expressions around the room indicated that nobody knew what he was talking about, with the exception of Allison. He glanced at her for a moment, then turned back to Optimus Prime. "Ah, Allison and I were talking about it last night. Something I had laying around actually, but I think I can program it pick up and amplify the packet signals as communication lines, maybe even hear what they're saying. It's a long shot, but I figured it's an option."

"Any chance we have of fighting back is a chance worth taking," Optimus Prime said. "Particularly when we don't have many options to choose from. See what you can find out, but we must move quickly. I think it's safe to say we don't have much time left before the Decepticons decide to mount a full assault."

Ratchet shook his head. "I don't like this. The Decepticons have our location. It's not safe to stay here any longer than necessary."

"We can find out,"said Allison. "We can find out how much time we have exactly."

Ratchet scoffed. "And how do you propose to do that? Just go up and ask one of them?"

"Yes, actually," Allison answered.

Wheeljack stared at Allison long and hard, trying to quickly gauge what she was getting at. His eyes widened when he figured it out, which didn't take long.

"No! Out of the question."

"But it's the perfect opportunity," Allison pleaded. "And it's not like we have a lot of options. Or time," Allison said with a deep sigh, before turning to Optimus Prime. "Besides. You said you thought I could help..." The Autobot leader only responded with a nod, but did not offer any immediate words. It could have been the fierce, startled glare that Wheeljack was throwing at him at the corner of his vision, or he truly had nothing to say.

"Do I not get a say in this?" Wheeljack interjected, tone much darker than his normally vibrant candor. Wheeljack finally looked at Allison and motioned with his hand, negatively. "You've already spoken with Starscream once already, and that was enough. I'm not allowing you anywhere near him."

Allison turned to Optimus Prime again, hoping to appeal to his authority. "Optimus, you have to let me talk to him. You know he won't talk to anyone else. Please, let me at least try."

Optimus Prime was silent and appeared to be thinking carefully for a moment before speaking.

"Wheeljack is not wrong to be protective in this matter. Starscream is dangerous, and more likely to provide false information than not." Wheeljack grunted in satisfaction, but Optimus Prime continued. "_However_, we're running out of options, and time is of the essence. Perhaps it's worth trying. The dangers are noted, which is why Ratchet and I will accompany Allison."

Wheeljack looked like he was about to voice an immediate dissent, eyes aglow with passionate argument. He looked between his commanding officer, Ratchet and Allison, before lingering on her with an immensely doubtful expression. Allison frowned as her heart dropped, and was about to open her mouth to say something to calm him, but he spoke first.

"Why exactly am _I_ not going with her, huh? I've engaged the fragger in combat more times than I care to remember, and besides..." His tone switched here to a much softer, less confrontational one. "Allison is mine to protect. She's my responsibility, and I just don't like the idea of putting her in danger when we have alternatives."

"But we don't have alternatives, Wheeljack," Allison said. She felt frustrated that Wheeljack was being so stubborn, and looking past the obvious advantages of her going down. She knew why, though, and it was hard to remain annoyed with him. "You can't always protect me, and I need to be able to make my own decisions without having you give them the okay every time."

"Sorry Wheeljack," Ratchet said, muscling his way back into the conversation. "But you're not going near Starscream, not even with a 10 mile pole. Allison isn't the only one with personal history with that creep. And on that note, Prime..." Ratchet turned to face the Autobot leader. "Why, pray tell am I going? Isn't this more Prowl's area of expertise? I may not want to tear Starscream apart quite as messily as Wheeljack, but I'd certainly like to disassemble the fragger myself if the opportunity presents itself..."

"Prowl is otherwise occupied. I have set him to begin the preparations for our departure and he has already contacted Agent Fowler, who will be here within the hour. We will go together." Optimus Prime vented air, the first sign of his frustration that Allison had seen since arriving. "Wheeljack, you will stay here. Time is of the essence." He turned to go, the command definitive and final, and he motioned for Ratchet and Allison to follow.

The two Autobots left the room, but Allison found herself lingering. Wheeljack was watching her, his eyes narrowed in what almost seemed like disgust, poised on his seat as if he was ready to say something to her. Allison watched him silently, not sure if she was waiting for him to speak first, or looking for her own words to say, but she knew that the look on his face hurt. He looked clearly upset, and while Allison could understand why, even if she didn't agree with it, she couldn't help but feel like she was to blame.

"Allison, come here." Ratchet had stopped when he realized that she was not underfoot, and he called to her from the hall outside the room. Allison opened her mouth to speak, but Wheeljack made a noise as if to sniff before turning away from her to return his attention to the monitors before him. He was intentionally ignoring her now, and it was painfully obvious. With her own sigh of resignation Allison turn to follow Ratchet down the hallway.

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><p><strong>I will be adding some elements from Transformers: Prime and they'll start popping up very shortly... in the next few chapters or so. Till next time!<br>**


	11. Unsettling Reunion

**Author's Note: Notes at the end. Not much to say just yet save for the fact that Starscream is a nut.**

**Hasbro/Takara**

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><p>Ratchet's heavy footsteps thundered ahead of Allison, who kept a safe distance behind him as they followed the corridor down to Starscream's cell. A paranoid part of her mind pictured the Decepticon having squirmed out of his cell, now lurking behind every corner waiting to pounce and mutilate her. Ratchet's face was typically grim, and she noticed on more than one occasion the way he flexed his fingers, as if anticipating a fight. She remained strictly an observer, hands clasped before her as she finally turned her attention to her own steps on the floor. Allison didn't realize that she had sighed until she heard Ratchet shift in front of her.<p>

"He'll get over it," Ratchet said, head slightly tilted in her direction as they continued. Optimus Prime was a few paces in front of them, and whether or not he was listening he didn't let on. Allison had a feeling that the Autobot leader could hear every word.

"I know. I'm not mad at him. I just don't understand why he's mad at me when I'm just trying to help."

"It's not entirely unreasonable for him to not want you near Starscream, not after what he did to you. I don't know that we have any other options right now, though, and he knows that. I think he would prefer to be here though, rather than me." Ratchet said, voice surprisingly full of understanding.

"Sometimes I get the impression that he doesn't trust me to take care of myself, as if me surviving up until this point was just dumb luck... when I think I've managed fairly well on my own so far." Allison said with a sigh. Ratchet made a noise as if to clear his throat.

"Oddly enough, I don't think it's you he doesn't trust."

"Oddly enough? Thanks Ratchet."

Ratchet made an irritated noise. "Let me finish! Wheeljack trusts you. But I don't think he trusts anyone else with you as far as your safety is concerned, regardless of how close we may be. He may not say it, but it's true. I don't know that I would trust anyone else around Arcee, as hard as I may try."

"You mean you worry about what other people might do to Arcee, or what Arcee might do to other people? Ratchet, Arcee's 20 feet tall and spends her morning shooting targets in her down time, with her own arm." Allison said, disbelieving.

"Wheeljack blows things up in his spare time. Sometimes himself." Ratchet said with very little inflection.

"Good point, I guess."

"Look, what I'm trying to tell you is that he may be upset with you now for wanting to throw yurself into Starscream's reach, but I guarantee you by the time his monitor shift is done he will have forgotten all about it. Wheeljack is stubborn, but I don't think he's that untrusting. He cares about you too much to be angry for too long. If it was someone else, maybe, but not you."

Allison couldn't help but smile at this, feeling her spirits lift, if just a little bit. Every little inch helped. Looking up at Ratchet, she took a deep breath. "Thanks for coming down with me, Ratchet. Being here now, I'm not entirely sure I could have made it past the first door on my own."

"Oh...eh...don't mention it,"Ratchet said awkwardly, looking up at the roof as he walked, pretending to be distracted. Ratchet had never been good with the endearing moments.

"No, seriously. Thanks. Starscream gives me the creeps, but I know at least he'll listen to me. He seems to find me interesting."

"You're a curiosity to him, nothing more," Ratchet said, bluntly. "Given the chance, Starscream would step on you the moment that curiosity left him."

"I think it's a little more than that," Allison said, shaking her head. "I survived him and, with the help of Wheeljack, beat him. I think that has his interest."

Ratchet grunted. "Like I said, you're a curiosity. "They walked down the ramp-way that led down to the depths of the brig. At the far end, the glowing bars of Starscream's cell lit up the area around it. Prime allowed Ratchet and Allison to walk on ahead, standing back in the darkness to observe the Decepticon's reaction.

As she approached, Allison could make out Starscream's shape, leaning against the wall. His features were cloaked in shadow, save for the two pinpoints of light that were his eyes, but even from this distance she got the impression he was acting complacent.

"Welcome back, Allison," the Decepticon purred. "I missed you. And I see you brought a new friend with you. No Prowl this time? Perhaps I scared him off the last time we exchanged pleasantries."

"The way I hear it," Ratchet said tersely, "The only thing being exchanged was Prowl's fist."

"Ah yes," Starscream said, rubbing his cheek-plate. "I regret to say that there was a little...disagreement between us."

"You threatened me," Allison said, tensely. "With no small degree of creepiness, I might add. Prowl only responded with the kind of action you deserved."

"Spontaneous bursts of violence are so unfitting of the Autobots," Starscream slithered. "He would make a fine Decepticon, if he weren't so..._moral_." He shuddered at the last word, as if it was something disgusting.

Prime chose that moment to emerge from the darkness, finally allowing himself to be seen by Starscream. "Prowl is a fine officer," he said, "and an exemplary Autobot."

Ratchet snorted. "I doubt the Decepticons share the same sentiments about you. In fact they seem pretty eager to get rid of you."

"Ooooooh..." Starscream oozed, ignoring Ratchet's barbs. The Decepticon rose up from his slouch, standing right up to the bars. Allison got a much clearer view of Starscream's insidious features, and promptly wished she hadn't as she found herself scooting closer to Ratchet's leg. "No Prowl, but the Autobot leader himself. I'm honored."

"I believe Allison has a few questions for you, Starscream. It is my intention to see you answer them quickly." Optimus Prime said, expression unmoving.

"Then I will make it my top priority to answer her to the best of my ability." The sarcasm in his voice dripped like egotistical honey, and Allison scowled. "Though I cannot assure you that I can be of much use to you. This dark, damp cell is clouding my logic circuits. Perhaps if we were to engage in this discussion in a more brighter, dryer climate, I might remember things better."

"You will answer them here, Starscream. And you will answer truthfully." Optimus Prime said abruptly.

Starscream looked on, sardonically. "Fine," he said. "It isn't as if I have anything better to do. Ask away." He waved theatrically.

Allison looked up at Optimus Prime, waiting for him to give her the indication that she could reveal certain information. When he nodded, she looked up at Starscream and cleared her throat.

"A Decepticon hologram was here, in the base."

If this was news to Starscream, his expression didn't betray any sign of surprise. He watched her with a level gaze for a moment, body as motionless as a statue. There could have been something happening behind the eyes, something scheming back there from the news that his own was very near and about to make themselves known. There _could have_ been, but it was hard to discern in the darkness.

"Your facility has been compromised," Starscream stated, flatly. "The Decepticons will be here soon, and you will all be dead."

The certainty in which he spoke chilled Allison, but she brushed it off, trying to look impassive.

"That was our assumption. Wheeljack found out about your _bundled packets_... or whatever it is you're doing to hide yourselves from the Autobots. Did you really think you could fool Wheeljack?" Allison said, and Starscream's expression for a moment was one of puzzlement. Finding that odd, Allison took a chance and continued. "Why do you look surprised?"

"I know nothing of what you're implying," Starscream scoffed, waving a hand grandiosely. "Your scientist's logic is flawed. We have no means of bypassing your scanners."

"Then how do you suppose a hologram managed to get in here without tripping any sensors?" Allison pressed, momentarily confused before it dawned on her. Starscream's evasive look, and the way his brow lifted, just slightly, betrayed the fact that he very well didn't have any idea what she was talking about.

When Starscream didn't respond, Allison looked up at Optimus Prime, who was watching the Decepticon with a studious expression. It appeared that he hadn't quite decided if he could trust the Decepticon yet or not.

"You may want to rethink that, because apparently you do... or did they not tell you?" Allison continued, with no prompt from the others. Ratchet made an indecipherable noise in his throat, maybe trying to stop her from talking, but she ignored it.

"You're telling the truth." Allison said finally. It was just a feeling. She knew when Starscream was playing hard to get and simply dancing around the truth in order to be difficult because she'd seen it. This was not one of those times. He truly didn't know.

"Perhaps it has occurred to you that this has developed in my absence?" For a moment Starscream looked betrayed, his brow plates knitted tightly in what could have almost been denial. It disappeared almost immediately, but Allison felt her heart skip a tense beat. "Don't delude yourselves into thinking they are coming for me. No, this is about _you_." Even though Allison knew he didn't mean her specifically, he was looking at her pointedly as he spoke. She held her ground and stared back, trying to appear stoic under his looming, red gaze.

"We want to know how long we have left before they get here." Ratchet said, interrupting the silence. Starscream looked up and directed his gaze not to Ratchet, but to Prime himself.

"It baffles me that you keep sending this little female down here to ask me something you could have asked yourself? Why send her and not Prowl, who could have so easily beaten me into a confession?"

"That can still be arranged," Ratchet interrupted, shifting heavily as he crossed his arms. Starscream's eyes flicked to the medic, almost nervously as the plates of his jaw line twitched. The Decepticon turned back to Allison.

"While I can't be one-hundred percent certain, I would wager that you don't have much time. There are not enough Decepticons in the area to risk a full-on assault, but they will be coming. This was a scouting mission, but rest assured the information has already been passed to Megatron. You have till tomorrow's nightfall, if you're lucky." Starscream was being unusually receptive, and Allison found herself in somewhat of a disbelieving trance at what she was hearing. Perhaps it was the realization hitting home that they were all in very real danger: Her, Sari, Wheeljack, _everyone_, and they were outnumbered.

"Why would Knock Out be on a scouting mission? Isn't that more for your types?" Ratchet asked, words clipped in a heated rush. Starscream turned back to Ratchet with an indecipherable face.

"Knock Out? Why, I couldn't even begin to imagine."

"He's your medic. Why would Megatron let him out alone?"

"Don't assume Knock Out is alone. He is _never_ alone." Starscream said brusquely, almost as if he were growing impatient with the questioning. "Besides, Knock Out is not merely a medic. He is a scientist, much like your _fine self_, and your half-witted engineer. I can imagine there being a perfectly good reason for him being out. He is the only one with a holoform generator after all..." Starscream's gaze slithered back to Allison, and she found herself tense up instinctively. "I would lock up your humans, Prime. Knock Out's inquisitive nature might very well compel him to seek out just what makes your little pets so special..."

Allison felt a chill run through her as she took this in. Another name, this one a _scientist_ and more specifically some kind of Decepticon medic. She couldn't entirely imagine a Decepticon being nurturing in any way, so the alternative was a doctor with a sadistic streak, and that seemed to scream "serial killer"to her. Or worse. That wasn't someone you wanted to be alone in a room with, especially when they were 30 feet taller than you and made of metal.

"Starscream, you have been... unusually compliant. I can assure you I will keep that in mind when we decide exactly what we're going to do with you." Prime interjected. The finality in his tone seemed to indicate that the conversation was over.

"How kind of you," Starscream said dully, his lack of concern obvious in just his tone, but he turned his back to them at that moment and appeared to be finished with their visit.

As Allison turned to follow Prime from the basement prison, Ratchet close behind her, she was surprised to hear the Decepticon speak again.

"Oh Allison, when they come, and I am free... I do hope you wait for me. Such a pretty little thing... it would be a shame if I were to miss the chance to pull you apart myself." She could hear Starscream turn around once more. "I wonder what sound you'll make when you bleed?"

Allison saw Prime stop in front of her with sudden swiftness but he didn't turn. Ratchet kept moving, and urged her to move forward, muttering under his breath to simply ignore Starscream. She tried, but it was hard to not hear him gloating, amusing as it was from his current position, but she couldn't help but feel terror creep up her spine.

"You're the first on my list little one, followed by that dimwit you have wrapped around your small, fragile little finger. Tell me, has he told you yet what he has done?"

Allison stopped, feeling her face burn with anger, but she did not dignify that with a response. Wheeljack so far had not told her what had happened between him and Starscream in their past. Starscream liked to imply that Wheeljack had been to blame, that he had _done_ something, and as a result the Decepticon seemed to be hellbent on getting even. On the few occasions she had tried to ask Wheeljack, he'd been evasive, almost as if he was ashamed. Starscream was trying to get under her skin, just as Wheeljack had warned her... and she let him, despite how hard she tried to deny otherwise.

"Oh my... I take your silence to mean that he hasn't. What a special friend you must be. Now, how well do you really know your heroic white knight Allison? How would you feel once you _really_ know all his dark, terrible secrets-"

"Starscream," Optimus Prime finally turned, and Allison saw an expression on his face that she knew with conviction she'd never want to see again. His voice thundered all around her and seemed to shake her very core like a bass turned up to full. With eyes narrowed to mere slits of glowing white Prime was a vision of pure, commanding power, and she felt a fearful appreciation for what he was at that very moment. "I may have to reconsider my earlier position."

"I humbly await your verdict," Starscream muttered, very clearly spooked as he retreated into the darkness of his cell.

Allison wasn't sure how to feel, and while she'd gotten somewhat numb to Starscream's taunts and threats, this one had been different. There had been true conviction behind this one, and Allison had no allusions that Starscream would not follow-through on his threat if he were given the chance. She'd never felt such a strong need for Wheeljack than she did at that very moment. He'd become a protective element; an avatar of defense like a cage she could put around herself to stave off Starscream's mind games. He understood her issues with the Decepticon like nobody else did, because he'd been there.

Except the look he'd given her when they'd left him behind kept her from asking the others if she could go to him. She knew that everyone else provided significant protection, but they weren't the security blanket that Wheeljack had come to represent to her. She couldn't go to him, and it was just a feeling, like staying away for a while and giving him a chance to cool down and be alone was a better alternative, disappointing as that was.

They passed the control room. Allison glanced at the door as if she could gauge something of Wheeljack's mood just by looking at the metal, but unsurprisingly there were no revelations. Instead she passed, part of her hoping that he would emerge and want to reconcile with her, to at least calm the fires that surprisingly little words had started. She wasn't mad at him, but he had clearly been upset with her. That was possibly worse when she was of the opposite mind, given the verbal insinuations she'd had to endure. Instead she felt kind of lost.

When they entered the rec room, Sari was slumped on the couch staring at a blank TV screen. Bumblebee hovered around her chattering nervously about video games, possibly to try and lift her spirits, but the girl was clearly pouting. Sunstreaker had re-emerged from his hole at some point and was loitering around Sideswipe, muttering to him with an expression that was the robot facial equivalent of a dam about to burst. Sideswipe didn't appear all that interested with what his brother was saying, letting out little _huffs_ every now and then if only to give the impression that he heard at least half of what Sunstreaker was trying to tell him. The only thing it did was make Sunstreaker look like he was about to punch his brother in the nose.

Optimus Prime immediately began giving orders, and his sudden urgency made Allison jump with a start, gliding around him in an effort to retreat into the room she'd been calling her own. She stopped when curiosity compelled her to find out what was going on, when everyone else ceased what they were doing to turn and gape at their leader.

"You two," Optimus Prime said, pointing to Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. "Your patrol has been tripled." This instigated a frustrated whine from the both of them before they turned to retreat outside, shoulders dropped in exhaustion. "And you will radio in on the hour, every hour, because we may not be here when you get back." Prime called after them, and a disingenuous wave from Sunstreaker was all he got in return as they disappeared. "Bumblebee, I want you to take the humans away. Taking Sari home to her father may be wise. There's no need for them to be here in the madness." That was a polite way of saying _they shouldn't be in the way_ but Allison found she couldn't blame him.

"What's going on Prime?" Bumblebee asked, wings twitching as he sat up from his crouch. Sari was looking at Prime with hesitant expectancy on her face. Allison noted that the girl had gotten dressed since this morning, and she was now a mixture of colors that Allison would have never imagined putting together; denim skirt, yellow cutoff leggings and floral socks that included just about every color of the rainbow, contrasting harshly with the hard practicality of her outdoor boots she was wearing. Her sweater was about the only thing that was relatively normal, and the powdered blue made her hair stand out sharply as it fell down her shoulders.

"What are we doing, 'Bee?" Sari questioned, turning to look up at her guardian, who gave her a sympathetic look and a small _hush._

"We're leaving." Ratchet said, stepping forward. "It's not safe here."

"Wait, have we talked to Fowler about this?" Bumblebee's tone was almost one of complaint, but Allison gathered that was more from his surprise than anything else.

"I need you to take care of the humans. Wheeljack will begin the evacuation protocols and purge the data from the systems we can't take with us." Prime turned to Ratchet. "You and Arcee need to gather whatever equipment from your medbay that you can, and... destroy the rest. I don't care how you do it." He vented heavily. "Prowl and I will prepare the rest of our equipment and weapons. Bring everything you can to the rear loading bay. We are falling back to the western facility."

"What about Starscream?"Allison didn't realize that she'd asked it until it had already left her mouth. Ratchet looked at her incredulously as if he couldn't believe what he'd just heard, but he remained quiet at the behest of the level gaze she gave him.

"I... I don't know yet," Optimus Prime said honestly. "But I must put the safety of my own, and of you and Sari before the Decepticon..."

Allison looked at Bumblebee, who was watching her with carefully controlled interest. She knew he was going to have questions about Starscream later, but he was waiting for the right time to ask her.

"If you're sure, Prime." Bumblebee said softly, but there was an underlying note of uncertainty in his voice that sounded very, well, the only way Allison could describe it was fear born out of inexperience. Allison knew Bumblebee probably wasn't green when it came to combat, despite how surprisingly young he seemed to her.

Despite this she got the impression that this new urgency was something different. They weren't exactly on the battlefield here, and the Autobots were outnumbered and vulnerable; they were on the defensive, and were now being forced to retreat. It wasn't their own lives at stake anymore, and they were willing to play the defense for the sake of the humans now.

Prime turned with an abrupt nod, and him and Ratchet disappeared down the hallway. So it was beginning. Allison felt somewhat displaced with all of this happening around her while she was on non-speaking terms with Wheeljack for the moment. She wanted to see him, if only to convince herself that everything was going to be fine, and this was all just preemptive caution.

"Sari," Allison said with a sigh, holding out her hand. She wanted to get them moving, otherwise she knew they would linger in their own pity until the Decepticons put them out of their misery. "Let's get some of your things to take home." The girl slid off the couch and walked towards her, mood decidedly more somber as her soft face was molded into a small frown. Allison didn't exactly have much that wasn't already stuffed into her partially ruined bag, so she was essentially ready to go at a second's notice. Sari had more personal items, and probably wanted to at least take them home.

Then it occurred to Allison. They were moving to a "western facility." Just how far away was this place, and was Sari going to be able to go with them? That very well could have been on Bumblebee's mind too, as he appeared to be staring at the TV's nothingness, silent and unmoving with nothing but a frown. She was only a little girl after all, with a father, and a life here in her own city. Surely, her father wasn't going to let her go away on her own? Allison opted not to bring this up, and decided it best to let this be discussed amongst those who were better equipped to make those decisions. Sari was going home for now at least, and that was probably the safest course of action.

Allison helped Sari gather up some of her personal effects: a few stuffed animals, a jewelry box, a few bottles of nail polish and some other odds and ends that looked to be caught between childhood and adolescence. Sari was of the age where she was going to start changing. Allison wondered if that had ever crossed Bumblebee's mind, because she hoped for his sake that he'd mentally prepared for that human gift called "puberty."

Sari was still silent, only sniffing a few times as they rummaged through her dresser together, gathering clothing items and whatever knick-knacks had been tucked in there, possibly long forgotten.

They had finally gotten everything into one bag (there wasn't really all that much after all, as most of it was probably brought from home then taken back on a consistent basis), when Allison heard voices out into the main room. She heard Bumblebee say something, tone exasperation, but the words unintelligible. Then a second, much more frustrated, and decidedly more human voice sounded off that Allison didn't recognize.

"It's Agent Fowler," Sari finally muttered, dropping her bag on the floor. She turned to the door as if to wait for whoever it was to enter. Allison followed suit, not entirely sure what to expect, but they didn't have to wait long. The man practically rushed into the room like a hurricane, slamming the door behind him to emphasis his entrance.

Admittedly Agent Fowler wasn't anything that she'd expected: Mid to late forties, African American with a full head of wild black hair. He was very tall, and more on the heavy side, but he carried himself like someone who had at one point been physically fit, but had simply let themselves go over the years. By his severely tight expression alone, she would have almost expected him to try and take on the Decepticon army alone... and win. The only softness about him was the looseness of the casual blue suit he wore, offset with a very lazily put together tie that matched his outfit so well she had to assume it was on purpose.

"I already know you can't give me answers, but someone has got to explain to me what is going on in here," Agent Fowler said, and his voice _carried_ in such an enclosed room that Allison almost had to step back. "I heard that this place is going to be crawling with Decepticons soon, yes. I want to know how this happened and what-" Fowler paused mid-sentence as his eyes fell on Allison. She waved meekly at him. "Great predatory eagles of America!" Fowler exclaimed. "Who are you, and why are you here?"

"Agent Fowler?" interrupted Bumblebee, poking his head in the doorway. "This is Allison. Prime told you about her. Her being here is... uh... kind of a long story."

Agent Fowler folded his arms to indicate he wasn't going anywhere. "I have time."

Bumblebee coughed. "We don't, sir."

Agent Fowler looked a little begrudging, but nodded in agreement. "Pleased to meet your acquaintance Allison, I'm Special Agent William Fowler. You can explain yourself later." Allison felt very surprised by Fowler's ability to quickly shift between one of greeting and authoritative questioning.

"So, care to explain what's going on? Prime briefed me, but I'd like to hear more." Fowler said, turning back to Bumblebee.

"The Decepticons have a new technology, Agent Fowler. One we only discovered after they used it on us."

"And what is this 'new tech' exactly?"

"Well, they were able to use their holographic technology in a way that allowed it to pass through our security protocols."

"Wheeljack says it's something about system packets or chips or something!" Sari said excitedly, wanting to add something useful to the conversation.

"Uh...yeah," Bumblebee said, looking at Fowler's questioning expression. "Something like that. Wheeljack can fill you in on the exact details later, but right now our first concern is to relocate to the western facility."

Fowler looked concerned. "This isn't going to be easy if you want it to be fast. Where's Prime? I need to speak with him."

"He's with Ratchet, prepping to go. You can catch him if you follow that hall." Bumblebee said. Allison watched Fowler rush out of the room, and before he disappeared around the corner in the direction Bumblebee was pointing, he turned back around with a spin of his heels.

"You two; don't move. We still need to talk." Fowler said pointedly, emphasizing with his fist to drive home the fact that this was not a mere suggestion. With that he was gone.

"Wow,"Allison muttered, giving Bumblebee a look of disbelief. "That guy's intense." She'd heard Optimus Prime mention he was coming, but she hadn't expected him to simply burst into the room unannounced. Bumblebee winced playfully at this.

"You should see him when he's angry."

* * *

><p><strong>I love Agent Fowler, and I've made him pretty exaggerated here just because I feel random patriotic exclamations seem to suit him. That's why he's funny. Plus he's voiced by a Ghostbuster, which makes him double cool. <strong>

**Knock Out is very much coming.  
><strong>


	12. Welcome To Your Hazing

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. I've had a lot going on the past few weeks, so it's been hard to find time to get this together. So this week we have a long chapter. This went through a few rewrites as well, as I wasn't happy with the initial version and ended up making some changes. **

**Also, I do really hate banana flavored things. :x**

* * *

><p>Allison had passed the time talking with Sari while they waited for Agent Fowler to return from his little chat with Prime. She wished she could have been more of a help, but as Bumblebee had pointed out, there wasn't much that she would have been able to carry. He himself had opted to wait with them in the rec room, where they were now sitting at the couch in anxious anticipation of what was to come. Allison wondered with some trepidation just what exactly Fowler wanted to talk about, and a more greater worry crossed her mind, which was whether or not she was in some kind of trouble.<p>

Agent Fowler returned faster than Allison had expected, sweeping back into the room about twenty minutes later. It was clear that he was in no way daunted by the overall size of the architecture that dwarfed his human stature, and in fact he seemed to command the very environment itself with the strength of his authority. She began to wonder if there was nothing dramatic about the man. He could probably eat cereal and it would be earth-shatteringly cataclysmic. He stopped at the front of the couch and stood before the three of them, arms folded.

"Okay, Allison. Now that I've been filled in on the situation, there's a few things I'd like to discuss with you."

"I'm not in any trouble, am I?" Allison asked.

"If we count reckless driving, public endangerment, destruction of property and bank robbery? No, you're good."

"I...wait a minute. How...?"

"We at the Department of Defense have a little thing called the Autobot Assistance Self-Sentience act. Yes, we're aware it spells AASS. We're getting the name changed in June. Basically, it means anyone helping the Autobots on a mission is covered for any damage they may cause while active, to a point." Fowler said, with very little humor.

"Okay, but in my defense I wasn't the one driving," Allison pointed out. "And the bank thing wasn't my idea. You should ask Ratchet and Wheeljack about that."

"Don't worry, I've already spoken to your friends a great deal about this. I would have liked to have been there personally, but I was too busy picking up the pieces behind you two in order to keep it out of the morning news." Fowler pulled out a pad of paper from the inside pocket of his suit, and began scribbling something on it. "There was a lot of death. A _lot_ of death. That never gets easy. Ever." He was talking into the pad, so he wasn't aware of Allison's dropped expression as she looked down at her knees. Lots of people _had_ died, all thanks to Starscream, and Allison couldn't stop herself from feeling somewhat responsible. She had been there after all, and technically he had been coming after _her_ at the time.

After a moment, Fowler tore the top piece of paper from the pad and pushed it at her. With a resounding sniff, Allison took it. She looked at the paper in her hands and found an unfamiliar phone number scrawled along it's face.

"What is this?"

"That's if you ever get separated and need to contact me. That's a secure line. Don't lose it, and I _don't_ want to see this on your Facebook page." He jabbed a finger at the paper before returning the pad and the pen to the inside of his jacket. "And I need your word that your relationship with this Autobot isn't going to give me any headaches." Allison gaped at him, caught off guard, and not expecting him to be aware of the details regarding her and Wheeljack. "Oh trust me," Fowler said, as if reading her mind. "I know all about that. I need to be convinced it won't be trouble. It's already been difficult enough." He glanced at Bumblebee with a knowing look before turning back to Allison.

"Wheeljack is important to me... but it's not going to cause trouble for you." Allison felt the need to reaffirm this. Fowler clearly knew what was going on in regards to Wheeljack's bonding, so it likely didn't need further explanation. To his credit, he'd been around them longer than she had.

"I don't think I'm ever going to fully understand what's going on around here sometimes, but it is what it is, and Uncle Sam be damned if I'm going to put any of my country's citizens in jeopardy. Let's hope it stays that way." Fowler turned his sights to Sari. "And you, young lady, are going home to your father," Sari huffed irritably at this, as if this type of authoritative dominance was not entirely unexpected.

"Yes sir," Sari said, with very little conviction, and it made Allison wonder just how often the girl broke the rules, and if this was going to be one of those times. She didn't know if Fowler meant that the girl would be sent home for good or for just a short while. It didn't seem like either was going to be very good at keeping her and Bumblebee apart. It was either that or saying goodbye completely, and Allison had doubts that was going to happen.

"And you..." Fowler rounded back on Allison, pointing. "You are an independent adult. There is currently no law in place forbidding you from socializing with the Autobots, so I have no jurisdiction as far as that is concerned. Just please, don't let me find you in the county morgue..." he stopped, eyes narrowing. "Or in pieces in the middle of nowhere."

"You're in luck there," Allison said. "Seeing as I don't have any plans for any of that to happen."

"Choice isn't really an option here," Fowler said, "But that'll have to do for now. Remember, if you're in any trouble at all, use that number."

"Thanks Agent Fowler," Allison said appreciatively, folding the paper up and placing it in the pocket of her sweater.

"I think I'm done here for now. I'll be seeing to it that you have some kind of ID with you, in case you ever get separated and wind up in trouble. But we can go over that later."

"Great, so now I have to start worrying about paperwork?" Allison joked.

"Try being me," Fowler quipped back. "Knowing the Autobots _is_ paperwork."

* * *

><p>After Agent Fowler had left, Bumblebee had ushered the two humans outside with a sense of urgency that hadn't been there before. Whether he was trying to get them out of the way for the sake of convenience or safety was anyone's guess, but Allison couldn't help but feel unsettled leaving so suddenly. It felt like there should have been more... well, anything really. The urgency was there, but it was quiet, almost uneventful, and not to mention her lack of speaking terms with Wheeljack made things feel somewhat unresolved. She didn't like that feeling, and most importantly she didn't like leaving Wheeljack upset, and possibly unaware of what was happening outside of his own preparations.<p>

Allison opened up Bumblebee's door, allowing Sari to scramble into the passenger's seat. This was the first time she'd seen Bumblebee in a vehicle mode, and unsurprisingly he was a somewhat small yellow sports car, complete with black racing stripes down the hood. While the size of the vehicle was somewhat sleeker compared to Ratchet's slightly larger frame, and even Wheeljack's more angular bulk to some extent, it wasn't any less conspicuous. Allison was starting to accept that while the Autobots had the intention to hide and blend in, they weren't going to do so without any small degree of flair.

As Allison clamored into the driver's seat, Bumblebee dutifully opening the door for her, she looked over at Sari next to her. The girl was already staring out the window with an air of disappointment, stuffed bag laying on her lap like some kind of emotional shield. Normally it wouldn't have mattered who sat where, but as they were going to be entering civilization, having a young child hop out of the driver's side once they got there would only arouse unwanted attention.

It felt weird, driving around inside someone other than Wheeljack, and for a moment Allison felt out of her element. She wondered if she'd ever feel comfortable driving a different car ever again. She wondered if driving period would ever feel normal.

"Bumblebee, are you sure this is what we should be doing?" Allison asked. "I feel like we should have stayed behind to help out."

"Yeah, I'm sure," Bumblebee replied as they drove out, surrounded by trees as they moved onto the road that would lead to the city. "There's not much for you to do and it's too dangerous right now. Besides, Optimus is right... Sari does belong with her dad right now." Allison didn't miss the glare the girl was throwing at the dashboard, which didn't go unnoticed. "Sari, I know how you feel, but until this blows over you should... be out of the way."

"Out of the way," the girl muttered, folding her arms defiantly across her chest. "Out of the picture is more like it... I'm not dumb. You're going far away... and leaving me behind." Sari huffed, but the sadness in her voice was evident, despite how indifferent she was trying to appear. Allison felt some discomfort, like she was intruding on a sibling argument but had no way to escape from it. It wasn't like she could jump out the door.

"It isn't like that at all..." Bumblebee stammered, but Allison could tell that he wasn't entirely sure what to say. He sounded troubled, but was doing a relatively good job at hiding his real distress, unlike some other Autobots she knew. It was clear that he didn't even know what was going to happen, and what was in store for them from here. "Look, Optimus didn't exactly say we need to take you home right away... we could go somewhere?" Allison looked down at the dashboard with a brow raised, but Sari's mood shifted suddenly, prospect of being separated from Bumblebee momentarily forgotten.

"Ice cream?"

"For breakfast?" Bumblebee queried back, but he didn't sound entirely disinterested. It was more of an eye-roll statement, but with the greatest of intent.

"If you're leaving me behind, then you owe me 'Bee..."

"Alright... fine, but I'm _not_ leaving you behind. Allison, what do you think?" It took a moment for Allison to process that Bumblebee was talking to her; trying to include her in the decision making. Up until then, she'd admittedly felt like something of a third-wheel, and like she wasn't where she was supposed to be. It all fell back to Wheeljack. With a sigh, she tried to push that from her mind.

"I guess... whatever Sari wants is fine." Allison wasn't trying to let the emotion show in her voice, but she must have let it slip. Sari was looking at her with a very perceptive look; something that was vastly more mature for someone her age, and it was a look filled with understanding.

"Don't worry, we don't mind that you're here or anything..." Sari said, and while she didn't outright say it, she could tell what the girl meant: that Allison shouldn't feel like she didn't belong.

"Thanks, but it isn't that. This is all so sudden that's all. I think I left my sanity behind." Allison laughed, thinking back with some disappointment that it would have been nice to stay in one place for even a little while.

"I think we all did," Bumblebee laughed, engine puttering playfully. "Want me to call Wheeljack? We can call him you know... see what he's up to."

"No," Allison said quickly, before pausing. "Actually, I'm not sure we're exactly on speaking terms right now," she added with a small laugh. It wasn't funny, but in many ways it was a little bit absurd to think there was a 30-foot tall robotic scientist giving her the silent treatment. Sari must have read this, because she let off a giggle of her own. Allison found that she couldn't blame her, and she let out a soft sigh of laughter. "Besides, he's busy." She'd have been remiss if she didn't admit that she was a small bit disappointed. Bumblebee made a sound as if clearing his throat.

"You know, you've got some bearings wanting to go down there and talk to Starscream like that. I think Wheeljack knows that, and he admires that, but at the same time he's worried about something happening to you."

"I know all this...but...he's locked up in a cell. I know I should be more afraid of him then I am, considering, but I'm just...not scared of words. Sure, he says things that bother me, but that's exactly what he wants." Allison shrugged. "I don't know. It's fine. He'll be fine," she added.

"You saw a Decepticon? No fair!" Sari cried, turning around in the seat to look at Allison. "What was it like?" Her excitement caught Allison off-guard, and she was reminded of the girl's oddly placed enthusiasm about getting stepped on by Megatron.

"Yes, but that isn't an experience I want you to repeat," Allison said, turning to the girl with a hard stare. "Look, it might sound exciting to see the bad guys, and get caught up in that... but these are very, _very_ bad guys. They will not hold back just because you're young," Allison said, her voice dropping. She wasn't sure how much she should chide the girl, or if it was really her place. Sari's eyes had glazed over in a look of naive shock as she watched Allison with shallow breath.

"They will kill you. They will _want_ to kill you. If you see a Decepticon, you run the other way." Allison stopped, wondering if she'd gone too far. Up until then, it had seemed like Bumblebee had been the closest thing to a responsible parent for the girl when her father wasn't around, so the last thing Allison intended to do was overstep any boundaries. After her multiple encounters with Starscream, and the other Decepticons, she felt it important to press upon the girl that this was no joke. Hanging around with a bunch of robots from space was cool, but they were at war, and in war, bad things happened.

"She's right you know," Bumblebee said after a moment of silence.

"Yeah okay," Sari said, sitting back with her arms crossed. She sniffed, and Allison wondered if she'd upset her. Placing a hand on the girl's arm, Allison gave her a gentle pat, trying to be as encouraging as she could given her lack of experience with children.

"Bumblebee, let's go get that ice cream."

* * *

><p>They drove along a small road that led to the nearest town, finally reaching it about 20 minutes later. The road itself ran through one of the outer quadrants of their old base's operational perimeter. Bumblebee knew somewhere out there right now, Sideswipe and his surly brother were patrolling the area. Prime had ordered them to triple their patrols, which the twins had been very vocal about. Bumblebee couldn't blame them. It meant the two of them were detailing three times their normal area, and for longer times. It must have been excruciatingly dull for them, though the sheer possibility that a large number of Decepticons could suddenly descend on them at any moment must have been keeping them alert.<p>

Up ahead in the distance, some of the taller buildings could be seen rising up from the ground, though none of them rose higher than 3 or 4 stories. The town wasn't particularly big, but it saw enough traffic and tourists heading in and out of Detroit that it was home to a number of small businesses and restaurants. There was a cafe district that was filled with beautiful neon lights, casting red and blue hues on the road as Bumblebee passed them. It was here that they intended to stop for ice cream, as a quick Internet search on Allison's phone had revealed a nearby ice cream parlor, not far into town. When they reached it, Bumblebee pulled up to the front and let himself idle parallel to the building to wait.

Allison and Sari both climbed out (with no small degree of complaint from Sari at their choice of parking spot) and disappeared into the parlor. Bumblebee stayed in his vehicle form for a small while, watching the two humans mill about for a few moments before he turned his attention to the sounds of nearby traffic and birds chirping. Slipping into distracted daydreaming, he was jolted back into awareness by a familiar voice that crackled through his com link unannounced.

"Enjoying Earthen cuisine, 'Bee?" Sideswipe mused through the link. "Or just slacking off?" A familiar cherry-red Lamborghini sidled up next to Bumblebee and stopped, engine purring.

"A bit of both," Bumblebee chuckled through their joint com link. "What are you doing here? I thought you were out patrolling?"

"We were. Well, Sunny is around her somewhere, I'm sure." Sideswipe said distractedly. "We discovered that you were in the area, so we thought we'd drop by and say hi."

"Something tells me you have more on your mind then just saying hello," Bumblebee said, feeling somewhat dubious.

"I solemnly swear that we are _not_ up to no good," Sideswipe said, and by his tone Bumblebee could imagine him grinning.

"Are you sure this is the best time? I mean, your patrol..."

"Don't sweat it. We're just passing through. Besides, wherever Sunny is, he's got it covered."

"The word 'covered' usually means that the other person knows what your plan is," Bumblebee said. Sideswipe paused as he seemed to search his processor for a response. "Look, you better get back out there. This isn't a joke. We could all be killed if we're not careful. You're lucky I'm the forgiving type and not about to tell Prime that you two are slacking off." There was a faint tendril of guilt that passed between them through the com link, before Sideswipe huffed, defeated.

"When did you become such a buzzkill, 'Bee?" Sideswipe whined, before falling silent from the com link for a moment. "That stupid glitch I have for a brother isn't responding. He's probably off admiring himself in some window somewhere and getting distracted," he said with a frustrated grunt. "I should probably go find him before someone tries to tow him away. I don't envy the poor human sap that tries to hook him by the aft and drag him off, because they won't last long," he continued as he pulled away from Bumblebee, and the subtle amusement at such a prospect was not missed.

"Please don't let your brother kill any humans today... or ever. I'd rather not have to explain to Prime that your brother is psychotic," Bumblebee said as he watched Sideswipe drive off. They continued for another moment through the com link. "Maybe he took off without you? Have you thought that maybe this was a joke to set you up?" Bumblebee said with some satisfaction. Better Sideswipe than him. There was a pause before Sideswipe responded in an amused assent.

"It wouldn't be the first time."

* * *

><p>Allison watched Sideswipe drive away from Bumblebee, and couldn't stop herself from wondering what they were talking about. While there was no visual queue that anything was going on, and to any passerby it would simply look like two cars sitting innocently next to one-another, she knew better. They would have been talking, and it was with curiosity that she watched them for the few moments that Sideswipe lingered. Oddly enough, the Autobot's yellow counterpart was nowhere to be found, which was strange considering they were essentially attached to one another.<p>

The interest of the general human public around them, while sparse, was not unnoticed, as Allison knew from experience a Lamborghini was a rare sight to behold. One just didn't see them every day, so on the occasions that one did happen to be on the streets, it garnered the same attention that one would expect if some kind of mythological creature suddenly dropped into the middle of a crowded room.

Allison couldn't help but roll her eyes at this, because she figured that was exactly why the twins had chosen such a car. They certainly seemed to crave attention. To be more specific, Sideswipe wanted everyone to know he was around. She got the impression that Sunstreaker was just a narcissist, so choosing a rare, expensive, and highly-prized sports car would only inflate his ego.

After Sideswipe disappeared she thought back to the conversation she'd had with him not more than an hour or so earlier. Admittedly she'd been a bit abrupt with the Autobot before, possibly even rude without even realizing that her evasiveness may have seemed discourteous. She realized now that, what to her had just been her naturally shy tendencies had been ill-founded, and the Autobot was surprisingly easy to talk to; just as Bumblebee had been. In fact, she wasn't really certain why she'd been shy at all, but Sideswipe had seemed to go out of his way to be friendly, and her behavior had probably only encouraged him to try harder. She was grateful for that, because she'd enjoyed talking to him. His brother she still wasn't sure about.

After they finally managed to obtain Sari's ice cream, they rejoined Bumblebee outside in the cold morning air. They quickly returned to their seats in the Autobot's warm interior, eager to get out of the chill.

"We thought about getting you one," Allison said to Bumblebee as she sat down. "But we couldn't decide what flavor you'd like."

Sari nodded enthusiastically. "I thought banana would be nice, because bananas are yellow, and you're yellow, so it makes sense... but they don't make banana ice cream."

"And for good reason," Allison said with a frown. That didn't sound entirely appetizing to her, and she couldn't imagine that Bumblebee would have been able to do anything with it. "Where to now?"

"I was thinking about a small detour: somewhere where we can sit for a while and watch the world go by. It might help to get our mind off of things before we take Sari home," Bumblebee said, and Allison noted that his voice sounded a little bit sad; Bumblebee was stalling.

"Sure," Allison said, shrugging, and Sari nodded enthusiastically. Allison found herself looking at the steering wheel, a habit she'd acquired when speaking with Wheeljack. It felt as good a place as any to look at while she communicated with the yellow Autobot. "That might be a nice idea. I think I saw a sign for a lake nearby, if you wanted to go there?"

The lake wasn't far, and was enclosed in the center of a large park. A long wall circled the perimeter of the lake, the ring of bricks occasionally broken by rickety wooden stairs that led down to the scrubby, sandy embankment and to the body of water itself. A pedestrian foot-path was situated up above the wall, but it was completely desolate, with no morning joggers or cyclists in sight. Bumblebee was able to find decent cover behind a lonely stretch of sand at the foot of the wall, where he sat idling for a few moments, waiting to ensure that their cover was clear.

Allison looked through the windshield at the view beyond, watching the still waters reflecting the light of the morning sun.

"You sure don't get sights like this back on Cybertron," Bumblebee said, almost wistfully.

"The rate we're going," Allison said sourly, "we won't much longer either."

"Was Cybertron ever like this?" Sari asked.

"Cybertron has its own...nature. It's just different, is all." Bumblebee seemed to shrug. Allison only half-listened to their chatter, thinking hard on what was pressing on her mind. She wanted to talk to Wheeljack, and sitting there listening to Sari and Bumblebee absorbed in their own pleasant little chat only reaffirmed this. It was time to be the adult and make an effort, because she knew Wheeljack was stubborn enough not to.

"Bumblebee, you'll watch over Sari for a moment, won't you?" Allison said, opening her door and stepping out.

"Where are you going?" Sari asked, leaning over from the passenger side.

"I need to make a call," Allison said, simply.

"You can't make it here?" Sari persisted.

"She wants to make a private call, Sari, to _you-know-who_," Bumblebee said. Allison sighed, rolling her eyes with a smirk at the lack of subtlety.

"It's not entirely a secret, I'm only going to be a minute," she said. "Try not to get in any trouble, please. I'd just rather do this alone." Shutting the door, Allison walked away, following the wall as it curved around a bend, until she found a wooden staircase that led down past the wall and to the lake beyond. Hopping quickly down the stairs, she noticed a large cylindrical, concrete drainage pipe that protruded from a wall of earth. Bits of scraggly grass and plant matter hung from the rim. The size of it was particularly impressive; almost large enough to drive a truck through.

Allison sat down on the bottom step near the pipe, staring down at the phone she held in her hands. She was about to activate the call to Wheeljack when a loud croaking jolted her up in fright. Out of the murky darkness, a large frog lept out into the open. Allison wrinkled her nose, feeling a little less enamored with the cylindrical dwelling. She got up and walked further out on the shore, getting a good view of the area surrounding the lake. She wasn't there to sight-see though, so she turned her attention back to the task at hand.

Wheeljack had altered her phone to allow her to reach him from her contacts list, despite the fact that he didn't have a phone of his own. Regardless of this small detail, he had been able to call her with it, and as such, she now had a method of linking up with him through his own internal com link. It had always felt strange, talking to him through a phone like he was another human, because for all intents and purposes he didn't sound any different.

Stepping out onto the scrubby sand, she let her phone dial the number: the random string of numbers her phone had assigned to whatever it was Wheeljack had done to link it to him. It didn't ring, but only emitted a faint crackle like one would hear from a radio station that was devoid of programming: dead air for lack of a better term, but it would alert some kind of sensor in him that he could access and initiate. Now was apparently not going to be one of those times.

"Big baby..." Allison sighed, muttering to herself as the reign of silence continued through the other end of her phone. Perhaps he was just busy, but even if he was distracted, he was usually able to at least sense that someone was trying to contact him. That was unless he had locked down his com frequencies on purpose, but she couldn't imagine him going to that many extremes. With a light shake of her head Allison was about to put her phone back in her pocket when she noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

Turning, Allison looked further down the edge of the lake, where there appeared to be a hidden clearing that looked like it was meant for cars. Sitting there alone, facing the river, was a yellow Lamborghini. It looked incredibly out of place, sitting there on its own.

"Sunstreaker?" Allison asked under her breath, a question to nobody in particular. She found herself wondering what the Autobot was doing there alone, if it was him at all, but she couldn't imagine many yellow Lamborghinis in such small town.

Thinking about her less-than-pleasant track record of socialization with the Autobot, Allison felt compelled to take the initiative and try and break the ice between them. Maybe he would be more receptive to harmless chatter without his brother around to distract him; that was her hope at least. It was either that or she would be trying to strike up a conversation with an inanimate object, and if it wasn't him, she was glad she'd told Sari and Bumblebee to stay behind.

Allison made the slow hesitant walk towards the yellow Lamborghini, and if it was Sunstreaker, he didn't give any impression that he was aware of her presence. Her eyes immediately found the Autobot symbol on his hood, but his lack of reaction to her approach was the first red flag that this conversation was not about to go as well as she had hoped. She had already committed to the endeavor, so walking away would have only been rude at that point.

"Sunstreaker?" Allison asked out loud, echoing her previous question to herself. A quick scan of the area made it apparent that nobody was around, including Sideswipe, meaning that they were alone. Briefly, Allison wondered why Bumblebee had not sensed his comrade's proximity. He hadn't even mentioned it when they had arrived, which meant it was likely he hadn't known they wouldn't entirely be alone. The only conclusion Allison could come to was that Sunstreaker hadn't wanted to be found.

_Well, too late, _Allison thought to herself. She was definitely committed now.

The Autobot didn't immediately respond to her question, so Allison persisted. "I know it's you. I can see your Autobot symbol." She frowned, thinking that was probably not the most polite thing to come out of her mouth.

Just as she finished her thought, Sunstreaker literally exploded into transformation, the sight a loud, visually angry process that made Allison step back; It almost reminded her of a Decepticon. She suddenly realized, somehow, that she was intruding on something without even realizing it.

"I'm sorry.. I just saw that you were alone and I thought that I-"

"You're beaches and parks are impractical environments," Sunstreaker suddenly said, his words derisive. "Open and empty. I counted several locations where someone could be sniped with ridiculous ease." He snorted. "Your species doesn't bother to pay attention to the environment. You don't work with it the way we do back on Cybertron; in fact you fight it. No wonder you all die so easily."

Admittedly, Allison was initially at a loss for words, unable to really find a usable response to Sunstreaker's rather scornful method of jeering. Looking around, she thought about leaving, but she already felt stuck in the conversation with no excuse to get out of it. Sunstreaker was looking down his chest at her, glowing sapphire eyes nearly indecipherable.

"First of all, you're not on Cybertron. And secondly, these places are meant for peace and enjoyment. I don't think the park benches were exactly designed with military disadvantages in mind." It was probably his lack of expression that prompted her to find some defensive counter, or his rudeness, but Allison felt compelled to stick up for herself. She wasn't entirely sure _why_, as he wasn't exactly criticizing her personally.

Sunstreaker merely looked down at her, the intimidating nature of his rigid posture called to mind someone looking down upon something that brought them great disgust. She'd seen that look on Starscream on more than a few occasions. It was like a looming gargoyle brought to life, only to glower down at you before deciding you were only a nuisance that was barely worth the trouble of stepping on. It was starting to make her feel rather uncomfortable.

"Aren't you... supposed to be patrolling with Sideswipe?" Allison ventured, hoping to change the subject.

"What do you care what Sideswipe is doing?" Sunstreaker's eyes flashed, and he leaned forward so that Allison was granted to opportunity to see his affronted scowl as if she'd just insulted him. Something told her bodily harm was imminent, and she wasn't entirely sure why she felt that way.

She shouldn't feel that way, not in the presence of an Autobot. The first alarms began to go off in Allison's brain as instinct started to kick in. Something wasn't right. She felt threatened, whether Sunstreaker meant it or not. His demeanor certainly wasn't something she'd come to associate with the friendliness of the Autobots so far.

"I... I don't... but aren't you two supposed to be together?" Allison pressed, finding herself getting pulled into the Autobot's sphere of aggression. Closing her eyes, she tried to clear her head. "You two are always together, so I just wondered why you were alone."

"Do you always make it your business to know what everyone around you is doing, or is this a special occasion?" Sunstreaker snapped sarcastically.

"Point taken, I'm sorry," Allison raised her hands in defeat, feeling frustrated at such a social failure. "You obviously want to be left alone, so I'm leaving." She turned to walk away, fully expecting to be completely forgotten. What she didn't expect, was for a massive yellow shape to literally leap into her path with a heaving thud that nearly made her knees give out.

Startled, Allison couldn't stop the gasp from escaping her throat as Sunstreaker's greater mass just barely missed colliding with her. He was close, and at this moment she came to the conclusion that he was too close, and she was now uncomfortable in all capacities.

"Well you started it, so now you're going to walk away?" His question was far too innocent sounding to be taken seriously, and Allison had the sneaking suspicion that she was being mocked. "Besides, that's not what I said," the Autobot said, traces of sinister intent underlining his words. "Since you're here, I guess it wouldn't hurt to have a little, oh, _you-and-me_ time, right?" Somehow, his tone did not convey that this was something that was to be enjoyed.

Allison called to mind something that Ratchet had said to her some time before, something that she was now remembering very clearly. The twins had a reputation for being a _collective pain in the af_t as Ratchet had put it, and she'd taken it to mean that they were a couple of pranksters. This however, seemed far more ill-intended than what she would have expected, and the unpredictability of a duo known for causing trouble only succeeded in making Allison feel more nervous. Sunstreaker's almost antagonistic sense of self-centeredness took out any potential joviality from the encounter and replaced it with a cold feeling of unease. Sideswipe was nothing like this, at least from first impressions, and it was making it hard for Allison to gauge what to expect.

"Maybe some other time. I should get back to Bumblebee and Sari," Allison said, trying to talk her way out of it. Sunstreaker was still hovering over her, not even bothering to kneel, much like Wheeljack would do in order to appear less of golem over her. It was almost as if he was intentionally trying to tower above her to intimidate her.

"What's the matter? You don't want to spend time with me?" Allison thought, that maybe there was bitterness underneath those words, just vaguely resembling something close to disappointment. That was until his scowl transitioned smoothly into a coy smirk. It was almost...creepy...how easily he had gone from questioning to mocking interest, and it made Allison suddenly very interested in walking quickly past him and back up the steps she had come from.

"Since you're here, I was thinking that maybe you'd like to see how a _rea_l Autobot gets things done..." Sunstreaker must have seen her eyeing past him, because he shifted, placing his leg in such a way that she wouldn't have been able to get past him without getting kicked.

Part of her hoped that Bumblebee would notice something amiss, that she'd been gone for too long, or that some human would move into the area and force Sunstreaker to back down. Allison just knew Sunstreaker was scanning the area for human signatures, so he would know in advance if he was in any danger of being seen. She just hoped someone would, and save her from this misery, because right now she was actually very, very afraid.

_He's just being a bully... a very _big_ bully, but that's exactly the point... he thinks because he's big he can scare me_... Allison was trying to rationalize in her head what was going on in order to draw strength for her words. Even though she knew this to be true, she was finding instinctively that feeling like a cornered bug was making it hard to feel empowered.

"I'm sure it would be very enlightening," Allison said, "but... I may need to take you up on that offer some other time." She was trying to sound sincere, but it was hard to do so with the Autobot towering over her. "I need to get back to Bumblebee," She made a quick attempt at making a break around Sunstreaker's right side. She didn't run, not wanting to draw attention to her fear, but she tried to make a confident stride, trying to put on a display of fearlessness. This attempt was obliterated though.

Sunstreaker's upper body lowered, his arm coming down quickly, and he blocked Allison's path with his fist, his knuckles pounding into the ground with enough force to knock her back. With a startled gasp, Allison fell backwards onto the sandy-covered gravel. Her phone made a loud cracking sound as it fell face down on the hard surface. Panting hard in the aftermath of the shock, she pushed herself backwards as Sunstreaker stood again, regaining his full height above her, rising like a yellow and black colossus.

"Where do you think you're going? I'm not done with you yet, Allison," Sunstreaker referred to her condescendingly. He placed a hand on his hip casually, as if this was nothing more than a playful conversation with a friend, despite his tone suggesting anything but.

"You're scaring me." It was all she could manage: a meek, barely audible whisper.

"Aaaaw, I'm sorry. Is the little human scared?" Sunstreaker trilled with fake sympathy. He was mocking her again, the wry smile on his face ironically one of disgust. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you didn't want to spend any time with me." That observation caught her off-guard, and made her seriously question Sunstreaker's motives as he frowned; it was almost a childish gesture in its exaggerated simplicity, but Allison was not fooled by his fake sincerity. This couldn't really be what he thought was an acceptable way to make friends... unless... unless he'd not taken her evasiveness quite as lightly as his brother had.

"I don't know what you're doing, because someone is going to see you, but if this is your idea of making friends then you've seriously got some problems-"

That must have made something snap within the Autobot's brain, because he all at once lunged forward, dropping down onto the ground so swiftly that Allison felt the rush of air as Sunstreaker got into her face. She felt the blast of hot air from his vents as he snarled, bringing his hands down flat onto the ground next to her with a crunch of cracking rock. She was getting the impression that Sunstreaker's displays of brutish anger were as common as his rude remarks.

"Just what in the Pit makes you think you can swoop in and get cozy with everyone, huh? Disgusting. Just because you're Wheeljack's new little pet, you think you can make nice with everyone? With Sideswipe?" Sunstreaker snarled through gritted teeth, and the resounding bass of his voice was like staring into the mouth of a lion before it's jaws snapped closed around your face.

"W-what? What are you talking about? I'm not Wheeljack's pet..." Allison said, her voice heaving with insult.

"Trust me, _trust me_; he'll get tired of you soon enough... that is if you don't die first. The runts always die first," Sunstreaker brought his face closer, and another blast of hot air hit Allison's skin as he vented angrily. Something told her he wasn't just referring to Wheeljack. Was he... jealous?

"Oh my God... you're actually doing this." Allison didn't know what else to say.

"Doing what?" Sunstreaker looked momentarily confused, but his face contorted as he laughed hard. "You think I'm going to kill you, don't you?" He laughed again. He thought this was a joke. Truthfully that had been crossing Allison's mind; that or at least a severe beating.

"You'll have to forgive me if I fail to find the notion of my death at your hands amusing."

"No, Allison. I'm not going to kill you." Sunstreaker was once again eying her with contempt. "There's no challenge in that."

"Then what is the point of all this? Look I'm sorry I bothered you... I thought... well it doesn't matter what I thought..." Allison huffed, breath heavy in her throat as her voice escaped in a growl. "But it's clear you just have a need to push around whoever is smaller than you. If you just wanted to scare me, then congratulations. You did it. Can you just let me go now?" Allison hissed. It was hard to sound in control when a very aggressive, very massive robot was in your face.

"No, I can't do that. We're just starting to have some fun, so it's a good thing you came when you did."

Before Allison had time to respond Sunstreaker reached forward and wrapped his hand around her, pinning her arms to her sides. All at once, memories of being crushed in Starscream's iron grip surged back into her mind like a floodgate of panic had just been ripped open.

Sunstreaker's grip was not as tight as Starscream's had been, but it was no less forceful, and enough to force the air out of her lungs. An uncontrolled gasp left her throat as his fingers closed around her, and she was lifted into the air unceremoniously and without care as Sunstreaker stood.

Sunstreaker must have mistaken her strangled whimper as an attempt to scream, because he gave her a quick squeeze, momentarily closing her lungs and stopping her breath. With numb horror she thought for a moment he was going to strangle her to death.

"Don't make a sound, or else I'll have to force you to be quiet. Don't think I wont," he said, and there was almost an air of disinterest in his voice as if the prospect was one giant inconvenience for him. "We wouldn't want Bumblebee to come spoil our little game." Allison had no choice but to remain silent, mostly out of fear for what was to come, but also because she wouldn't have been able to put up much of a verbal struggle even if she'd wanted to.

There was a sound like a clicking whirr that emanated from Sunstreaker's body, and with some horror Allison realized that she recognized it as the tell-tale sound of an oncoming transformation. Within seconds everything was moving as her world spun, and there were only the violent sensations of movement and rushing air. Yellow and black metal folded around her, and for a moment gravity disappeared as she hung in the air weightless for a moment, all of her insides rushing to her throat before Newton's Law finally kicked in. Her body was unceremoniously dumped into the tight back seat of the yellow Lamborghini that hit the ground with a violent thump.

Sunstreaker's interior had all the egotistical design choices that the Autobot bore on the outside. Everything was sleek, with soft cushions and a generally fake, synthetic feel to it that left her cold. It was a far change from the warm, friendly interior that Wheeljack had. There was no opportunity to admire the surroundings around her, considering she'd essentially just been kidnapped, her captor now flooring the gas as he took off out of the parking area, in the opposite direction of Bumblebee and Sari.

"What are you doing? Let me out!" Allison hollered, now fully able to breath, and she tried to lunge between the front seats so that she could get to one of the two doors. She wasn't entirely sure exactly how Sunstreaker forced her back, but somehow the very surfaces of the interior around her collectively pushed her roughly against the back seat. Allison hit the plush surface with no degree of softness, the scar on her back sending a quick burst of pain down her spine as she yelped.

"Don't even think about getting your organic filth all over me," Sunstreaker snarled, his voice filling the interior as he made a hard right turn into the street. Sunstreaker clearly knew where he was going, and as they drove away, Allison wondered if Bumblebee had any notion right now as to what was happening not too far from his location.

"Does Sideswipe know you're doing this?" Allison banged on whatever surface she could see with her fists, trying in vain to cause the Autobot pain by venting her frustration. A ripple of anger rumbled through the Autobot's body before she heard as much as felt a sardonic grunt of laughter. Suddenly, a living seat-belt wrapped around her, pinning her back tightly as she struggled against it uselessly.

"Safety first, Allison."

Her pleas for him to stop and go back went unheard as the Autobot weaved erratically through the light traffic, leaving Bumblebee and Sari behind. Her phone was gone, and she was utterly alone, and unknowing as to where Sunstreaker was taking her. Her demands only ceased when her throat went hoarse and her breath left her in panting gasps. She dropped her head to sit in exhaustive silence, wondering how she'd been so unfortunate to be on the receiving end of Sunstreaker's idea of fun.

Ratchet had uttered the understatement of the century.

* * *

><p><strong>Oh Sunstreaker, you're kind of a jerk.<strong>

**And I'm just going to get it out there right now. This is NOT a twincest thing. Like I said in my first chapter, I simply don't do slash or twincest. That's just my personal preference, so please understand that I have no problem with you if you enjoy that, I personally just don't care for it in my TF fiction. We can all get along! :D**

****Potentially spoiler-ish*** but it's just something I wanted to bring up. My interpretation of Sunstreaker might come off rather harsh right now, but I wanted him to start off from a place that would give him a chance to grow in a positive direction. I see him as being sort of a polar opposite to Sideswipe in many aspects of his personality, and as someone who doesn't quite know how to control his anger or lack of trust in outsiders. I don't see him as particularly malicious, with the exception of Decepticons, but I do see him as being impulsive. So, looking at someone with anger issues and prone to be impulsive, I found that an interesting place to examine some character building and instill some change. In other words, without telling the whole story in a paragraph, the only place to go from here is up and maybe atone for some pretty silly choices.  
><strong>


	13. Kidnapped

**Author's Note: Thanks for reading! As always, I don't own these characters.**

* * *

><p>Sari and Bumblebee had been waiting for what felt like an eternity for Allison to come back, but so far that waiting had proved fruitless. Sitting in Bumblebee's passenger side, Sari was starting to get bored, wondering just what exactly Allison was doing that was taking so long.<p>

"How long does it take to make a phone call?" Sari asked after a while, the concern in her voice only outweighed by the boredom she felt as she sat, hanging out the window with her arms folded. She sighed, now wishing that a certain ghost hadn't woken her up at such an odd hour, because she was getting sleepy.

"She probably got through to Wheeljack," Bumblebee said, though he didn't sound too convinced.

"They're probably exchanging sappy stuff," Sari huffed, resting her chin against her arms. "I hope she comes back soon though," she muttered. "I'm getting hungry again."

"I don't know. Something just doesn't feel right..." Bumblebee said with some trepidation, a rumble of disapproval passing through his body.

"You always think something doesn't feel right." Sari said, turning to the steering wheel with a frown. She knew it wasn't his face, but it had always felt natural to simply stare at the dashboard somewhere when speaking to him. "Just call her and see what she's doing. You can call her, right?"

"I've tried. She's not answering. She could still be talking to him..."

"Or she's sulking. Look, I'll go find her," Sari said, swinging her arms back inside so she could push the door open. Bumblebee made a noise as if to respond, and Sari lingered for a moment for him to say something. Expecting him to stop her, she smiled approvingly when all he did was rumble an assent. Jumping out with a feeling of triumph, she walked over the sandy ground and followed the wall.

Bounding down the same set of stairs she'd seen Allison follow, Sari stopped momentarily at a large drainage pipe that dwarfed her, but she couldn't see anything inside that might have indicated that Allison had wandered down there. She didn't entirely know _why_ Allison would have gone down there, but there were plenty of things adults did that still perplexed her. Knowing that she would find nothing there, Sari moved on.

There was only one way Allison could have gone, though, and brief investigation of the area revealed some scuff marks in the sand that might have been foot prints. She decided to keep following the wall, and eventually after several minutes she came out onto a small hidden parking lot which had caught her attention. There were no cars around; just tire marks and oil splotches, and it was hidden from view from the wall above. Worse still, there was no sign of Allison.

It didn't make sense. Allison wouldn't have just wandered off, not without telling her and Bumblebee about where she was going. Sari frowned, lingering for a few moments with a feeling of unease, not liking the fact that Allison had seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet. Looking around, Sari didn't see anything that would provide her with any clue, and most of all, no Allison who had simply wandered off farther than expected. She was an adult after all, and had every right to walk wherever she pleased, but she'd said she'd come right back. Now she was gone. Sari couldn't quite place it, but something seemed _off. _

Feeling flustered and unhappy, Sari turned to head back to Bumblebee, wondering how she was going to tell him that Allison was gone. Maybe he could get a hold of Allison's phone again...

Sari took a few steps across the sand covered gravel, and her foot kicked something loose. Looking down, she saw with a flash of panic what she immediately recognized as a cell phone—Allison's cell phone—and she picked it up and flipped it open. There was nothing she could ascertain from it, as the only thing she saw on the screen as she cycled through the notifications were the missed calls from Bumblebee. Now she _knew_ that something definitely wasn't right.

"Uh oh…" Sari muttered to herself. She cradled the phone to her chest with care, and turned to hurry back to where Bumblebee was waiting. The yellow Autobot immediately opened his door for her to jump inside.

"Didn't you find her?" Bumblebee sounded worried.

"Just her phone," Sari said with a slightly heavy breath, pulling it forward to look at it. "It was lying on the ground down there. Did you know there's a parking lot down there? Well there is, but not much else 'cept for this and just some tire tracks. I couldn't find her, but I found her phone on the ground…"

"Tire tracks?" Bumblebee parroted, ignoring the rest of Sari's findings. "What kind?"

"How should I know?" Sari asked incredulously. "It was a parking lot, there were tons of them. I didn't think anything of it."

"Well, you can show me when we get there. We'll go on foot since there's nobody around, so I'll need you to get out for a moment."

Sari clamored out of Bumblebee's driver-side door, and waited as the Autobot transformed in an urgent rush. Bumblebee nodded for Sari to climb down the stairs, and the young girl quickly bounded down them two at a time. Bumblebee nimbly hopped down to the lower level, vaulting the wall with ease, and the two of them walked towards the far end. As they passed the large pipe, Bumblebee stopped for a moment to shine a pin-point light inside that emerged from his finger.

"I already checked," Sari said, shaking her head. Bumblebee looked inside one last time, then turned with a heavy sigh and kept moving. When they got to the parking lot, Sari quickly ran over to a set of tire marks on the ground, closest to where she found Allison's cell phone. She pointed at them for Bumblebee to see, and after a quick look around to make sure nobody was around the Autobot approached. He knelt down with a hand on his face in contemplation, but she could tell by the look in his eyes that he didn't like what he was seeing.

"Recognize them?" Sari asked, hopefully.

"I think I might, actually," Bumblebee said. "These tracks here are unique. You won't find any Earth vehicles with the same markings. Though... surely it can't be who I'm thinking it was..." He shifted, pounding the ground hard with his fist. "That slagging idiot, I'm going to kill him."

"Wait, what? Kill who? A Decepticon?"

"No. Not a Decepticon. Worse. These look like Lamborghini tire tracks. And I know a couple of Lamborghinis with a sense of humor that's too big for their afterburners."

"How can you tell that from just looking at a bunch of lines on the ground? They're all tire tracks to me…" Sari found it hard to belief that one could ascertain anything just by looking at markings on the ground. They did it on TV all the time on police shows, but she'd always dismissed that as creative writing. Bumblebee, however, had always been very good at investigating things that were uncertain, but even that seemed a stretch to her.

"When you've been the victim of their pranks as many times as I have, you learn how to spot the signs that they've been around. Just trust me on this…"

"Are you trying to tell me that Sideswipe and Sunstreaker took Allison?" Sari nodded, taking Bumblebee's word for it and turning to the more immediate concern they had to deal with.

"At least one them, and it's highly likely that Sideswipe was trying to throw me off by telling me he didn't know where his glitch of a brother was. I bet those aft-heads think they're being funny trying to get me in trouble. They'll probably have a nice big laugh watching Wheeljack grind me into dust. But that's not going to happen. We're going to find them, and we're going to show them how very _un_funny they really are..." Bumblebee was pressing his fist into his other palm, eyes squinted in frustration as he began to rant. Sari couldn't help but laugh at this.

"You're really funny when you're angry. You don't quite have the bad ass thing quite right." She said, waving a hand at him affectionately. Bumblebee looked at her with a sarcastic smirk on his face.

"Okay, okay, but I'm serious. We need to find them. Allison may not understand that they're joking around. Or she may find it funny. We don't know, but I sure as the Pit know that I'm not going to let them pull this on me. Not when we have Decepticons about to rain down from the sky. This just isn't the time for that." Bumblebee transformed in a rush before he even finished speaking, kicking up dirt from the ground in little clouds. His door popped open and Sari quickly climbed inside. Bumblebee was moving forward immediately, giving her barely enough time to sit back in the chair and reach for her seat belt. The parking lot had a hidden driveway on the other end that presumably led back out on to the street, and thinking this a likely place that one of the twins—or both of them—had gone they followed.

"Allison doesn't really seem to have that kind of humor; she's pretty grumpy. Not Ratchet-grumpy, but I don't think she'd appreciate being taken against her will." Sari observed, looking out the window as they pulled onto the street from a back entry into the lot. She liked Allison, but didn't quite know her well enough yet to get a feel for how exactly she'd react to a prank on her. She seemed happy enough around Wheeljack and Ratchet, of all people, but there was a part of her that seemed very strained. Sari thought she seemed like a tightly coiled wire about to snap, but was trying to hide it.

Judging from the little bits and pieces of what Sari had overheard and what Bumblebee had told her, she'd had a very difficult time when Wheeljack and Ratchet had gone to get her in Sealth. Maybe that was why she seemed so serious all the time, but as far as Sari was concerned, getting to run around with Decepticons on your tail seemed like an exciting rush, regardless of how often Bumblebee tried to lecture her.

"She's just stressed out. We all are I think, and this is only going to make things worse. I'm not going to radio this in yet. I want to catch them in the act." Bumblebee responded, almost confirming her previous thoughts.

Sari kept her opinions about Allison's dislike for Decepticons to herself, mostly because she knew that Bumblebee kind of liked her. It didn't bother her; she mostly didn't want to hear Bumblebee recite the rules of engagement to her for the millionth time. Sometimes Sari almost thought Bumblebee sounded like her father, if she even knew what her father really sounded like.

* * *

><p>Allison had been staring down at her knees while Sunstreaker drove, not even bothering to look out the window to see where she was going. It hardly mattered. She had no cell phone to call anyone, no cash on her for a payphone, and she'd just been kidnapped by an Autobot who'd spent the duration of the drive trying to goad her into a verbal altercation. Not once did she take the bait, not wanting to give Sunstreaker any more of a reason to pound her into pulp. More than once did she find herself actually considering that would be one of the options on his mind.<p>

Suddenly, Sunstreaker stopped, throwing Allison forward briefly as his momentum seized. Allison waited for the Autobot to say something, but his silence wasn't unusual. She felt a distinct tension in the air around her, like something was about to snap.

The air began to electrify around her, and she felt the roiling sensation of movement as everything around her started to vibrate. Numbly, she realized with little enthusiasm that she was about to experience what it felt like to be inside a Cybertronian during transformation.

Allison was convinced she was about to get crushed as the clicking whir intensified into the clattering roar of moving metal. She became disoriented as everything around her moved and spun, the weightlessness taking hold once again as she felt herself pitched forward against something hard and metallic. The metal wrapped around her as yellow and black pieces continued to move into place, and before she could come to terms with the fact that Sunstreaker had grabbed her and literally _pulled her out of him_ mid-transformation, she tumbled gracelessly onto the cold dirt with a heavy slap.

Dazed, Allison yelped in surprise as she felt Sunstreaker grab her by the back of her jacket. Fumbling at the massive hand on her back, she was yanked to her feet and thrown forward a few paces. Stumbling and caught in a moment of utter confusion, Allison turned, feeling her blood run cold as she took in the image of the massive robot before her. Sunstreaker stood above her, poised in an aggressively rigid stance, but with an expression devoid of emotion save for the hot glow of his eyes as he impaled her with his stare.

"Sunstreaker..." Allison found her voice to be very small at that moment. She had been afraid before, but now it was amplified by the derelict surroundings they now stood in. They were in a train yard, devoid of life and utterly silent. The empty train cars resting on the tracks seemed to watch them like solemn soldiers in the chilled morning, but the lifelessness that purveyed the area only reminded her that she was truly alone with him. She was supposed to feel safe and protected by an Autobot, not terrified and convinced she was about to die.

Sunstreaker took one massive step toward her, and his hand moved to his thigh where she saw plates shift. He pulled something out from within with practiced ease; the blinding swiftness of a trained soldier, and what he soon aimed directly at her made her breath escape her.

Instinctively Allison threw up her hands in surrender, unsure if the Autobot understood such a gesture, or even cared. She opened her mouth to speak, to ask him _why_ he was pointing a gun at her, but no words came.

Panic set in: the instinct to fight or fly very urgently telling her to fly, because she was about to become a searing pile on the ground. Somehow though, the reality she now found crashing down around her almost made sense. If there had been one Autobot she would suspect turning sides, it was the sociopath who stood before her. At least, she'd come to that conclusion after the last dozen or so minutes she'd spent with him.

In the back of her mind, the only part of her panicked thoughts that remained rational, she wondered if Sideswipe knew what his brother was doing.

"Move," Sunstreaker barked, waving his sidearm in the air at Allison as she watched the barrel of the weapon with dread. Breathing hard, she stepped back, understanding the command but not quite sure where he wanted her to go. Looking behind her, there was nothing but open train cars on the tracks around them.

"What are you doing?" Allison asked tentatively. At this point she wasn't concerned about making Sunstreaker any angrier, because she wasn't even sure if that was possible. For her own sake she just wanted to find out what was happening.

"It's time for you to go," Sunstreaker said smartly. "You're not welcome any more."

"What did I do? Why would you say that?" Her question was sincere, as she couldn't comprehend what she could have done to set off the Autobot so much that he would want to remove her from existence. It was this unknowing of his reasoning that made her so afraid.

Sunstreaker's eyes flashed in response, creating intense angles on his face, revealing the disgusted snarl that spoiled his otherwise youthful features. Allison stepped back, her eyes darting around, searching for some kind of savior as if by some miracle she would see Wheeljack charging into the clearing to stop the Autobot's insanity. That was unfortunately not going to happen, and as soon as Allison came to terms with that, she understood the true danger of what she was facing.

Nobody knew they were out here. She couldn't bring herself to believe that Sideswipe was a part of this. Sunstreaker had likely intentionally chosen this spot that would be outside of anyone else's current radar. Looking up at him painfully, searching for some shred of humanity that might have been left in the Autobot's eyes, Allison tried to speak once more.

"I thought you said you weren't going to kill me..." Allison said calmly, trying to sound like the voice of reason, arms still raised in surrender. The Autobot shook his head, obviously dissatisfied with her answer.

"You still think this is about you, don't you? Did that small brain of yours ever stop to consider that this could be about me, or about anyone else?"

"Obviously this involves you," Allison said quietly, feeling her voice waver just slightly under duress. "You've drawn your weapon on me… so obviously I've done something to upset you. If I have, I'm sorry, I-"

"All that idiot does these days is talk about that little human, that stupid femme who thinks she owns the place. He won't _shut up_ about you..." Sunstreaker ranted, his eyes starting to go wild as he splurged all his pent up frustrations at her.

Inside her head, Allison let out a frustrated cry of irritation. Just what _was it_ that made them want to monologue their lifetimes of problems at her? Wheeljack did it all the time, because he was highly strung and only mildly insane, and Sunstreaker was doing it now, presumably because he was a basket-case. Starscream had done the same thing... before he'd killed her.

"I don't believe it. You're doing all this because you're _jealous_ of me?" Allison stuttered with mounting realization. Part of her was still intensely afraid, but she also felt a shred of sympathy for the Autobot. "Why would you be jealous of Wheeljack? Sunny... I never meant to-" She had barely gotten the nickname out of her mouth, trying to appeal to a softer side of him if there was one, before she remembered the warning she had been given by Sideswipe.

"Don't call me that!" Sunstreaker barked, hotly glowing eyes snapping back to glare into her. "And this has nothing to do with that crazy old scrap heap. I couldn't care less what Wheeljack does with his time."

"Then what—" Allison paused, realization dawning on her for the second time as she tried to rewind and recall her actions the past few weeks since she'd arrived, looking for whatever she had done to make Sunstreaker snap. Then it hit her. "_Sideswipe? _This has to do with your _brother?_" It slowly started to make sense: the irritated looks, the intentional neglect of her presence, and the overall disdain for her entirely, made obvious when Sideswipe had gone out of his way to be friendly.

Sunstreaker was jealous of his brother, or at the very least obsessively protective to the point of _this_ nonsense that was almost surreal. That didn't mean it made _logical_ sense, but Allison could at least find some reason to what Sunstreaker was doing.

"Who said anything about being jealous? I don't need a human following me around." The Autobot scoffed, seeming to find the very notion amusing, but Allison found very little laughs with Sunstreaker's massive pistol still aimed at her face. Even though she was paying far more attention to the gun than she liked, she could tell he was lying. Something she'd done had clearly bothered him to the point of this irrational outburst, and she couldn't really pinpoint _who _he was jealous of; Sideswipe giving her attention or the other way around...

"Whatever it is, whatever problem you have with me, I'm sorry. I never meant to upset you, or hurt you, or ignore you in any way, but you didn't exactly give me much of an opening to talk to you… Next time _say_ something to me. If you have problems, you can't just _get rid of them_…" Sunstreaker seemed to look away at this point, like he was aware of something that might provoke threads of guilt within him. She tried to edge around this without pushing him too far, but her hopes of appealing to his more rational judgment didn't seem to be working, as he turned and snapped back at her.

"You think this is some kind of joy ride that you can tag along with? It's not. We have serious work to do here, and we don't need humans running around messing things up, whether it's you, or that little runt that Bumblebee drags along with him. You're a distraction and a liability we don't need." Sunstreaker jabbed a finger at her from his free hand. "Especially Sideswipe. He has enough problems to deal with. Now turn around." He motioned firmly with his gun.

It didn't add up, of course. Sunstreaker was clearly aware of Bumblebee's attachment to Sari, and yet he didn't seem to be taking out his morally-skewed retribution on her. This wasn't about being a burden on the team; Sunstreaker was clearly a black sheep of the Autobot fold. He made no attempts to even appear like he was a member of a family so much as it was a situation he was stuck with. This was purely about Sideswipe paying any small amount of attention on someone other than Sunstreaker, Autobot brethren excluded. Anyone else might have recognized Sideswipe's interaction as a sincere sympathetic act, one purely extended with the intent of helping a fellow member of the family through a rough transition. Clearly that meant nothing to Sunstreaker.

Allison turned around at Sunstreaker's forceful insistence, her arms still raised in frustrating. "Sunstreaker, I know why you're doing this. But you're an Autobot. We're on the same side."

She said it, but she was struggling to believe it herself. Wheeljack had told her that all Autobots sought to preserve and protect life. But Sunstreaker's clear acts of irrational hostility and wanton disdain for Allison's safety was fast proving otherwise. If anything, it was becoming clear to Allison that the Autobots were just as prone to the same problems and rifts as humans, and that like every family were susceptible to the same inner struggles that could lead to companions turning on each other.

Sideswipe would not have let Sunstreaker do this, however. Of that Allison was certain. Sunstreaker had never bothered to hide his judgmental nature or spiteful attitude to those around him, and even during her short time with them, she could see it clear as day. In fact, Sideswipe laughed off his brother's behavior time and again, seemingly indifferent to what might have actually been boiling underneath. Either he really was truly dense and completely oblivious, or he ignored it on purpose hoping that it would just go away. Having not grown up with siblings of her own, it was something Allison had to acknowledge as something she just couldn't understand.

The look in Sunstreaker's eyes told her, however, that this wasn't what Sunstreaker was. Capable, yes, and more so than Allison cared for. But at his heart, Sunstreaker was scared, and this was forcing him to lash out. There wasn't the same blood lust there that Starscream or Megatron had. There was too much movement there; the nervous flickering in his eyes as they darted about; the paranoid glances around. Instead, she saw the signs of someone who had gone too far off the edge and was of the impression that he couldn't turn back.

Allison had seen the vengeful need to kill before, in Starscream. Even Wheeljack, pushed to the brink of pain and emotional suffering, had displayed the look of someone with the explicit intent to kill. This wasn't it. The fury was there, that much was certain, but there was something else. A deep, penetrating sadness, being masked by anger, and no matter how hard the Autobot tried to keep the anger on top his eyes shifted with fear; maybe over what he had set himself to do and couldn't stop. Sunstreaker was sad with where he had ended up, and he was lonely, stuck on a planet that was not his own with only his brother. Or, at least that was probably how he felt. Allison was alien, and she was an intrusion.

It hardly mattered anymore, because it was already too late. It brought her no comfort knowing this, because at the end of the day she was still about to die.

"I have to look out for Number One Allison. The other Autobots don't understand what we've been through, and personally they don't need to. And neither do you. That's why I can't have you hanging around Sideswipe, or anyone else." He waved his gun in the direction behind her, causing her to flinch each time the open barrel passed by her. "Now _move_, while you still can." he said stiffly, the insinuated threat not lost on Allison.

"Your brother looks out for you, Sunstreaker. Do you honestly think that Sideswipe would let you do this? That he'd be _happy_ you're about to kill me?"

"Don't pretend that you know him that well. You have no idea what he's capable of, let alone how he'd react to what I'm doing."

"I know him enough to know that he's compassionate, and loving. I know that he wouldn't like what you're doing. And what about Optimus Prime? Do you think this is what he'd want? Please, think about what you're doing here..." Allison whispered, her resolve slowly ebbing away. There was no reasoning with him. She wasn't about to change his mind.

"He won't have to know. As far as he's concerned, he'll just think you left on your own free will."

Allison took a few hesitant steps forward, realizing they were getting closer to Sunstreaker's ultimate goal of removing her from the picture. "Do you really think Wheeljack will buy that?" Allison asked quietly, still finding herself shocked at Sunstreaker's growing confidence in what he was doing.

"Wheeljack will have no choice but to believe what I say. Even if he won't, who do you think everyone will believe? And even if they did suspect something, they'd never find any evidence to back it up with." Sunstreaker was corralling Allison into an open shipping car, but she wasn't yet convinced that he wasn't going to just shoot her before she got there. She would have preferred it be neither, but part of her knew he was cornering her into a closed space to do what he intended. With a shaking breath she stopped moving, unable to bring herself to climb inside. Her heart pounded painfully against her chest and she turned to look at Sunstreaker, only to find a wry smile on his lips.

"You still think I'm going to kill you, don't you?" His question was alarmingly casual as Allison found herself searching for some kind of opening to slip past him. She was tempted to bolt, thinking that if she got away, she could get herself lost in human civilization knowing that Sunstreaker wasn't mad enough to try anything where there were witnesses. She hoped. "Don't flatter yourself. Like I said, that would be too easy. One blast from my gun and you'd just be a smear in the wind. Where would the fun in that be? Now be a good little pet and get in the cage." He waved at the train car, but Allison found herself unable to take her eyes from him. She almost wanted to say something smart in retort, but Sunstreaker's smile disappeared into a frustrated snarl banishing any defiance she may have found. Allison flinched as he lunged forward, and in the next moment found herself being hoisted roughly off the ground and tossed into the gaping maw of the black train interior.

Yelping in affronted shock as her body collided with the back wall of the car, she rolled over to see the horrific vision of Sunstreaker filling the open doorway. She pressed herself against the back wall to distance herself from him, but no matter where she went she was still an arm's reach away. This must have been how a caged bird felt, and with heavy breaths she awaited her fate.

Sunstreaker frowned at her, a near one-eighty from his previous expression, before reaching for something out of her vision. There was a clatter as he fumbled with something, his expression suddenly one of panic as he said nothing. He gave her one last painful, confused look before pulling the door closed, engulfing Allison in total blackness. To her, that look was all she needed to tell her why he was doing this. He was trying, in some weird way, to protect his brother.

But that didn't excuse his actions.

Allison stood there in the darkened car, unable to see her own hand in front of her face. Allison found that less alarming then coming to terms with why she'd just been kidnapped, and left in an empty, pitch-black train car to rot; a brother's jealousy. That was painfully obvious. Sunstreaker had always given her _looks_ when she was around Sideswipe. At the time she had thought he had merely been acting intolerant of his brother's penchant for associating himself with humans. It was frightening how much both Sideswipe and herself had misinterpreted that emotion.

"Are you _crazy_?" Now Allison was mad, feeling justifiably furious that an autonomous alien robot could be so _petty_, and that she had feared for her life over nothing but rival jealousy. She'd thought Wheeljack was sensitive, but he'd only jokingly given her friend Danny a hard time. He'd certainly never threatened to _kill_ the other human. This... this was just absolute absurdity.

Unsurprisingly, there was no response to her challenge as she heard what could only be described as a roar of a very smug Lamborghini engine as it drove away. Fumbling in the darkness as her eyes adjusted, she could just make out the crack of light beneath the door. The floor beneath her was filthy, and bits of debris dug into her palms and her knees as she crawled towards the light. The sound of her body sliding against the floor grated on her ears and made her head ring. Panic was slowly starting to set in as the darkness seemed to take on its own mass, feeling heavy and palpable in the heat of the closed space.

Fumbling with the door, Allison tried to pull it open as her fingers found the pitted handle on the side. She was met with resistance and an audible clang of moving chains as the heavy door fell back into place. Sunstreaker had locked her in. He intended for her to stay there, probably until she died to save him the trouble of getting his own hands dirty. She was still reeling with the realization that this was all because Sunstreaker somehow had gotten it into his head that she was a danger to his brother.

The silence set in soon after, and Allison finally began to pay attention to stirrings of real panic in her gut as her flash of anger started to wane. She was locked in, and had nowhere to go. It was complete darkness, and she had no food or water... or anything for that matter. She'd lost her phone, so that wasn't going to help her either.

Allison was alone in a rail car, sitting in the pitch nothingness and fresh out of ideas. After banging on the door with her fists as hard as she could, screaming for _someone_ to hear her had proved fruitless, she gave into crying before her voice became hoarse from all the effort. Her hands hurt, and she was getting cold, feeling more and more claustrophobic by the second. Crying would get her nowhere. Being angry would get her nowhere. Instinctively she lay down and pressed herself against the one crack of light in the car like a moth to a flame. It was the only thing that kept her from convincing herself she'd gone blind in the darkness.


	14. Oopsie Poopsie

**Hope everyone had a good holiday. I've had a few personal issues to deal with hence the delay. I will try and update regularly from here on out, but just a short chapter here. **

**I realize I keep mentioning Arcee, but she's never actually present... I've simply had no place for her in the current plot, but she's around. It's not the greatest, but I didn't want to simply ignore the fact that she was there given that she was in the previous story. I'm not sure that she will pop up save for mentions, but we'll see.**

* * *

><p>It had been far too quiet in the base since Bumblebee had left with the two humans, close on the heels of Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. After Ratchet and Arcee had successfully stored away what could be taken from the infirmary, Arcee had immediately left to patrol the base's perimeter. Ratchet's reservations about the idea had led to him protesting quite verbally, but he knew it was an argument he wasn't going to win. Arcee was capable of handling herself and besides, it wasn't his place to dictate what she could or couldn't do.<p>

Reluctantly, Ratchet had watched her go, receiving a knock on his shoulder from the femme as she told him he was simply being overprotective. He knew it was true, but the friendship they'd built over the decades made him uneasy at times like this. To take his mind off of things, he'd resumed the work of destroying what supplies in the infirmary were either inconsequential or simply couldn't be taken. There was no sense in leaving things around for the Decepticons to salvage.

Once that had been completed, there was nothing left to do. The silence had started to grate on his nerves enough to put him further on edge. Admittedly, Ratchet had gotten used to the voices of the humans running amok (and maybe even a little bit fond of them, although he'd never admit it openly), so their absence felt decidedly _wrong_. He needed to talk to someone, to have a cerebral conversation with another individual to convince himself that he wasn't alone in the base. The only person not incredibly busy and not Optimus Prime was Wheeljack. While any attempts to engage Wheeljack in casual discussion usually devolved into technical debates and flailing of limbs, at this junction Ratchet was willing to do anything to break the silence. Heading over to Wheeljack's station and opening the door to the com room, Ratchet took a deep breath and entered.

Wheeljack was hunched over the central monitor station absorbed in the streaming readout on the console face before him. When Ratchet entered, Wheeljack didn't bother to look up, but simply raised his hand in acknowledgment of the medic's presence.

"All critical systems have been purged. Teletraan-1's core interface and essential data systems have been uploaded to the western facility. But you're probably not here to talk about that," Wheeljack remarked, vocal panels blinking dully against the computer console. He looked up at Ratchet and squinted. "So what are you here to talk about?"

"Anything. It's too slagging quiet around here," Ratchet said with a grunt, rotating his shoulder to work out the kinks from packing as he walked closer to the engineer at the control console. "The twins were supposed to report every hour and, as usual, they've failed to succeed at even that most simple of tasks. Have you received anything from them?"

"Reports?" Wheeljack looked taken aback. "No, I haven't received any updates from them at all." He trailed off, losing himself in thought. "Things have been quiet. So quiet, in fact, that I was able to encode the scanning systems into CAMY here so that we could continue to monitor the area until it's time to leave. All I'll need to do is pull the plug when we're ready to go." Wheeljack stopped, and appeared to be scratching at a ridge on his head. "It _seems_ to be working. I calibrated the bundled packet sensors and tested them time and again using ghost data from the previous hits, and each time it found the anomalies before they started deconstruction. That should give us enough time to know they're here before they know we've spotted them... although we're not really going to know unless the 'Cons _do_ decide to drop in on us. _Until _they drop in on us, I should say."

"How efficient will it be?" Ratchet asked, grimly, ignoring the fact that Wheeljack seemed to be dead-set on calling his invention by name.

"We'll either see it coming... or we won't," Wheeljack said, matter-of-factly. He looked at the large box that was CAMY, plugged into a series of ports at the outer edge of the massive computer. He seemed to linger on it for a moment, and Ratchet had a pretty good idea as to what he was thinking.

"Well, this still doesn't tell me why the twins have yet to report in. I'm getting the feeling that more bad news is on its way... At any rate, we'll need to tell Prime about this," Ratchet said. He was about to turn and go hunt down Prime, but he stopped, sensing the engineer's disturbance. "You haven't heard anything from Bumblebee either, have you? He's with Sari and Allison." Wheeljack shook his head, and Ratchet frowned. "Hmm. Bumblebee's not normally the sort to miss a report. He's eager, but he's a good bot."

Wheeljack looked a little hesitant, and Ratchet caught the look on his face. "What is it? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Actually...Allison did try to contact me, but I didn't respond." It was a good thing that Wheeljack was not looking directly at him, otherwise he would have seen Ratchet's exaggerated shrug of frustration.

"You were ignoring her? I swear, sometimes you have the emotional maturity of a cyber-newt. And she's not much better. The pair of you were practically built for each other."

Ratchet had known Wheeljack for a very, very long time. They had been friends for most of their lives, albeit ones that constantly got under each other's mesh. Wheeljack was not one to be open with his emotions, and tended to keep himself more closed off when it came to matters of the spark. He had his own special methods of coping with the stress and loss war, and that generally meant he would lock himself away in his lab for extended periods of time. If keeping himself busy was what worked for him, Ratchet was in no real position to judge.

Allison however, was a special exception. Wheeljack probably assumed he was getting away with it by appearing indifferent, when in actuality it was with these matters that his emotions were more obvious. Ratchet knew him well enough to be able to ascertain that Wheeljack's stubborn behavior was more out of his own concern for her safety, rather than outright anger. He simply didn't know how to show it. All Ratchet knew, was that staying angry would only make it hurt more.

"It's complicated, all right? I just needed time to think is all. Besides, she's only going to yell at me. Just like _you_ always are."

"What? I never yell at you," Ratchet said incredulously, voice raised.

"You're yelling right now!" Wheeljack pointed out dubiously, optics narrowed.

"I am not!" Ratchet looked a little taken back, then threw his arms up in frustration, venting air. He walked over to Wheeljack and placed a hand on his friend's shoulder, wanting to instill calm. "Look, I spoke to her earlier. She was upset, yes, but I think it was more out of concern for you. I get the impression that she feels very disrupted when you're not on speaking terms. I think she would like to hear from you, at least to know you're alright."

Wheeljack looked at him pensively, venting air heavily. "You're right," he said quietly, panels a soft white. "I think I should probably call her back."

"Of course I'm right," Ratchet said, walking to the door. "And since you might not see her until we reach our new home, it'll make you feel better if you do call her." Stopping mid-stride, Ratchet turned again. "You really have nothing to worry about. I saw her down there with Starscream. She's really fine, and that's the truth."

"That's the thing, though," Wheeljack said. "As long as that pile of _scrap_ is alive, he's going to keep coming for her. He isn't going to stop until he forces me to watch her die again. I know it." Wheeljack's eyes narrowed, underscoring his severe expression that was mostly hidden by his battle mask. "I should have killed him." His intent sounded clear, but his voice lacked the conviction. Wheeljack was a lot of things, but a killer was not one of them.

"As much as I want them all to be scrapped too... you would have regretted that, and don't try to deny it. That just isn't you," Ratchet vented air deeply, looking for the appropriate words. "Wheeljack, you're not the only one who has a stake in this. I'm the one who had to resuscitate her, remember? This is important to me too." Ratchet stopped, barely aware of the words coming from his vocalizer. He was surprised at his own admissions, not normally comfortable revealing something so intimate to anyone, with possibly the exception of Arcee. Even so, such emotional discourse was rare, and difficult for him. "I know Allison is important to you, Wheeljack. But that doesn't mean the rest of us have any less intention to keep her safe."

"I know," Wheeljack nodded in acknowledgment. "Next time she calls, I'll answer."

"Don't wait for her to call," Ratchet said. "Take the initiative, for Primus's sake. She'll appreciate it."

Wheeljack paused for a moment, then put a finger to his temple, activating his internal com system. There was a brief moment of silence before he frowned and lowered his hand.

"She didn't answer."

"Well, keep trying," Ratchet said. "I'm going to have a word with Optimus."

Wheeljack watched Ratchet as he exited the room, then raised his hand to his temple and tried again.

* * *

><p>"You did <em>what<em>?" Bumblebee was yelling, feeling a perplexed fury unlike any he had ever known. He was finding it impossible to wrap his processor around the stupidity of the other Autobot before him. Sari had long since removed herself from the immediate vicinity, now sitting silently on a fallen log some distance away from the three Autobots for safety's sake. Safety, just in case any wanton fisticuffs started to fly.

Sunstreaker was leaning against a tree with his arms folded, looking far too smug considering the argument was directed at him. Bumblebee had caught up to Sideswipe easily, as the Autobot had been lazing around watching a group of teenagers vandalize a closed-up coffee stand. The humans had ultimately been ignored, for the two of them had set to hunt down Sideswipe's other half who'd seemingly vanished, only to appear as if by magic like nothing had been weird about his absence. Allison's absence however, was immediately clear, though the Autobot acted as if nothing was particularly amiss.

"You heard me." Sunstreaker had been far too proud of himself after announcing his little stunt, but what had made Bumblebee even more uncomfortable was the Autobot's seeming lack of empathy. The twins pulled many pranks in their lifetime, but despite their hazards, they were generally directed at other Autobots; Ratchet mostly. In hindsight, they would almost be safe when compared to what Sunstreaker had apparently thought was an amazingly brilliant way to haze the new human. In this matter Bumblebee did not agree, and he had a pretty good idea that Wheeljack would not approve either.

"She needed some time to cool off and learn her place. I gave her that opportunity."

"Wh-why on Cybertron would you do that?" Bumblebee raised his hands to his head in disbelief. "What the Pit were you _thinking_?" His eyes flitted around as he tried to come to grips with what Sunstreaker was saying. What disturbed him the most, was the fact that Sunstreaker was acting with a persistent, nonchalant indifference about the whole affair. Normally after a prank, the twins couldn't stop laughing and congratulating themselves over their success in wreaking havoc.

This was different. This almost didn't even register with Sunstreaker, given his bland, uninterested scowl. It was obvious Sideswipe had not been privy to his brother's actions this time around, as the red Autobot was uncharacteristically silent. Sideswipe was looking at the ground with an expression of detachment, avoiding any sort of eye contact as if that would somehow remove him from the conversation.

"She's just in a little box, it's no big deal. She's probably going to be fine." Sunstreaker was looking at his hands, as if bored. Sunstreaker's attitude was always a source of irritation, but right now it was simply fueling Bumblebee's growing rage.

"She's _probably_ going to be fine? This wasn't something you thought about, was it? You're not serious are you?" Bumblebee stopped, realizing that he was firing off questions too fast. Sunstreaker was starting to look at him in a way that made him think he was about to start throwing punches, if only for the fact that his integrity was being threatened. Not wanting to start anything with Sari present, Bumblebee tried to soften his voice. "Sunstreaker, that poor girl is probably hysterical right now. She doesn't know you like we do, and she certainly doesn't know that you two clowns pull this kind of crap all the time."

"Hey, it's not my fault she frightens easily," Sunstreaker snickered.

"_You're_ the one who put her there. And you've still yet to explained why you thought kidnapping Allison was a good idea." Bumblebee put his hands on his head and pulled at his horns in frustration. "Wheeljack is going to kill you. _I_ kind of want to kill you right now. But I won't be able to because Wheeljack is going to kill _me_ first. Did you even think about that? Did that thought even pop into that tiny processor?" He looked at Sari, who was watching him with an absorbed, attentive look. He thought for a moment what he would have done if Sunstreaker had done this to her, and came to the conclusion that he would in fact maim the other Autobot. He was getting close to that already, if only due to the terror of what was going to happen to all three of them if they didn't have an Allison with them when they went back.

"Don't care..." Sunstreaker huffed, looking up at the sky. Sideswipe finally looked up at his brother, startled, but he didn't say anything. He simply watched him with a wide-eyed look of shock, and Sunstreaker merely glanced at him before turning back to admiring his own hands.

"That's unfortunately very obvious, but it isn't up to you. It isn't up to any of us, and I think that Wheeljack is going to give you a well-deserved aft-kicking which _might_ put you in your place. But I doubt it."

"Those are awfully big words for such a tiny Autobot," Sunstreaker observed wryly, and Bumblebee was thoroughly convinced that the Autobot truly didn't care. He wanted to think he was just too dense to really get it, but Sunstreaker was not stupid. He was insufferable, but also far too clever for his own good, and he made it known. He was now trying to bait him by pointing out his smaller stature as if that was a weakness, but Bumblebee wasn't going to let him do that, regardless of how much he bristled at the remark.

"People don't generally lock up _other_ people just because they feel like it. Especially if they're our friends."

"We're not _people_." Sunstreaker's eyes narrowed dangerously and he straightened, standing upright stiffly with pride. "We're Cybertronians. And they aren't our friends. They are weak, and they are liabilities. I think you forget that sometimes."

"You don't mean that," Bumblebee shot back. When Sunstreaker didn't respond to his outburst, Bumblebee shook his head and sighed. "You know, sometimes I wonder if you've forgotten what it means to be an Autobot." He turned and looked over at Sideswipe. "Say something. He's _your _brother. Please tell me you can't honestly be okay with this slag coming out his mouth, right?"

Sideswipe hesitated for a moment, obviously not wanting to be dragged into the argument further as his mouth opened to speak but no words came out. It was clear he didn't approve of his brother's actions, but he didn't look particularly eager to say it to his face.

After a moment of silent pondering he placed a hand on Sunstreaker's shoulder and finally spoke.

"Sunny, tell me where she is."

"Why, so you can go run to her rescue?" Sunstreaker's face shifted abruptly to anger, violently so, as if the very question had pushed just the right button to set his nerves on edge. Sideswipe looked taken aback.

"That's not a question you should even have to ask. You took her, then dumped her somewhere. I wouldn't even do that, and I'll do just about _anything_." The first sign of Sideswipe's emotion could be seen on his face as a flash of anger that made his optics go white. Bumblebee took a step back, no longer concerned that he would be the one caught in a physical altercation. The twins were not afraid to get into physical, sometimes even violent fights, which always led them to Ratchet's medical bay. This was looking like it could stray very close to that.

"You've spent so long on this planet that I think you've let it corrupt you." Sunstreaker had stepped forward, and Sideswipe now found himself face-to-face with his own brother, their nose plates nearly touching as Sunstreaker snarled. "I'm sick of this place. I see you interacting with the humans, with _her_, and sometimes I think you even enjoy it."

"It's none of your fraggin' business what I do in my spare time..." Sideswipe jabbed his finger into Sunstreaker's chest-plate, momentarily pushing his brother back.

"It is my business, because you're my brother-" Sunstreaker growled, undaunted, as he went one step further and pushed his whole hand roughly into Sideswipe's chest. The red Autobot stumbled back a step, but immediately came back forward with a hand raised as he shoved Sunstreaker away from him.

"Look, I know you're my brother, but this is not an ideal that I share with you. I've accepted that we're stuck here, and I'll make the most of it while I can. That doesn't mean I'm going to suddenly forget who I am or where I came from. And I'm certainly not going to forget who my brother is." Sideswipe stepped back as Sunstreaker moved forward with a grimace of anger, the red brother's face softening for a moment as if begging for peace. "I need you to do the same."

Sunstreaker cast his gaze down at the ground, and his features bore an expression that Bumblebee had never seen on the angry Autobot before. It might have been regret, or sadness, though he couldn't tell for sure.

"I hate them," Sunstreaker mumbled. He didn't sound quite so confident in his own words, but it was obvious that he was holding on to his stubborn ideals. "I hate all of these humans. They're disgusting vermin. Small, pathetic, weak."

Bumblebee noticed that Sari had shrank back from her seat on the log, eying them all apprehensively as she tried to make herself look small. He was compelled to take a step closer to her to protect her from Sunstreaker's line of sight, even though he knew that the Autobot wouldn't ever physically harm her. He _hoped_.

Sideswipe looked at his brother with pity. "Please," Sideswipe pushed, looking at his brother with a mixture of urgency and pity in his eyes. "Do it for me."

"Alright. But only since you asked so _nicely_," Sunstreaker said after a moment, emitting a deep rush of air as he vented heavily. Sideswipe was smiling with approval, and while Sunstreaker had managed to attempt a joke, Bumblebee was not yet convinced that this was going to magically make things better. He was concerned that Sideswipe would once again become disillusioned to his brother's more aggressive means of dealing with things, sometimes going completely against what they had swore to hold sacred as an Autobot. Bumblebee watched Sideswipe with a little bit of sadness as he seemed proud, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Thank you Sunstreaker," Sideswipe said. "See? You're not a complete lost cause."

"I don't know about that," Sunstreaker said, sourly.

"Well I do," Sideswipe said. "Trust me, I'm your brother. I know these things."

"She's a little ways east of here, just a few kliks," Sunstreaker said, looking up at the sky "There's an old rail stop that looks like it hasn't been in use for a long time." To Bumblebee, it looked like he was having great difficulty admitting what he'd done, and where he'd taken Allison. "I had intended on going back for her. At first... maybe I had thought of leaving her there indefinitely. But..."

"You're not that cruel, Sunny," Sideswipe said, interrupting him. "Stupid, hotheaded, and a host of other things. But you're not cruel."  
><strong><br>**"I don't know," Sari said, finally piping in, causing Bumblebee to turn around with a start and look down at the girl. Sari was standing on top of the log, hands pressed against her hips as she frowned at Sunstreaker. "Kidnapping Allison then locking her up in an old train like that sounds pretty cruel to me," the girl added, voice high with emotion. Bumblebee waved his hands at her shyly, afraid that she was going to single-handedly rile Sunstreaker up again, possibly convincing him to change his mind about doing the right thing.  
><strong><br>**"Listen here you little twerp," Sunstreaker rounded on Sari with hotly glowing eyes, leaning forward as if he was going to step in her direction. "You're barely sparked, so what the frag do you know? You don't have a brother to protect, but if someone came around and made eyes with this little runt you'd want them gone!" Sunstreaker waved an arm at Bumblebee, who decided to ignore the insult hurled at him in the interest of moving between them to block contact.

"Your impulse was to lock her up in a train just because she was getting along with your brother? How stupid are you?" Sari was smart enough to not allow Bumblebee to simply stand in front of her to stop her. She had jumped off the log and shot past Bumblebee's leg as if to make a run for the other Autobot. Bumblebee had the foresight to anticipate this, and was fast enough to grab the girl and scoop her off the ground. Sari squirmed in his hand, breathing heavily as she flailed. It shocked Bumblebee to see the girl so heated up.

"This isn't my fault..." Sideswipe muttered, his expression once again one of stone-faced shock. Sari was still hurling half-focused, uncoordinated insults at Sunstreaker as she struggled to break herself out of Bumblebee's hand. At this point, Bumblebee realized that things were quickly spiraling out of control, and he was going to be the only one to bring back order if they hoped to find Allison before the others realized something was wrong.

"You two can work out your personal problems later. Right now, we have to find Allison." Bumblebee said through gritted dental plates, feeling his systems heat up with anger. He hadn't initially felt it, but now that the shock had worn off, he was starting to feel, angry, furious even, that Sunstreaker had the nerve to do something so dangerous to one of their own as if it was his decision to make. "You had no right... no right at all to decide what happens to Allison, and I guarantee you Wheeljack and Optimus Prime will agree with you." Sari had finally calmed, hands pressed tensely against his finger as she looked up at him, flushed from her exertions. He glanced down at her and at the behest of her frown, worked to calm down his overworked systems.

"Now, let's go get her."


	15. Not as Planned

**Hope everyone had a good new year!**

**Sorry for the short chapters, but there should be some pretty long ones coming up.  
><strong>

**All characters belong to Hasbro/Takara, etc..**

* * *

><p>Allison was running her hands along the sides of the train car door, trying to look for a way to escape her situation. The door was heavy, and she couldn't find any way to lift up the heavy industrial lock on the other side. Even if she managed to squeeze her hand through the narrow space between the hinges, she couldn't even come close to getting the right amount of leverage needed.<p>

Her vision was mostly obscured but for the small filter of light escaping through the cracks around the door, illuminating only the texture of the wood and steel, not enough to provide her with any idea of what she was sharing space with. She'd only remembered catching brief glimpses of a few crates stacked along the end before she'd been locked in, but she hadn't been able to pay close enough attention to them to see what they were. From what she'd seen on the outside, the car had been just as unremarkable: long and rectangular, with no distinguishing features that might make it easily identifiable. From what she could feel of the car's surface, Sunstreaker had at the very least opted to pick something that wasn't covered in rust or infested with rats. Allison was thankful for that small mercy, though she doubted it had been done through any intent.

She had tried banging on the walls a few times and crying out for help, attempting to grab the attention of anyone nearby, but to no avail. No one came to her aid, and she sat in the dark for a small period of time, simply unable to think of what to do to free herself. She wished she had a watch on her so she could at least gauge how long she'd been captive. Part of her didn't want to know, but she knew it was important.

There was nothing on her to keep her occupied, unless the scrap of paper with Agent Fowler's phone number on it counted as entertainment. It was useless anyway, having dropped her phone back at the parking lot where Sunstreaker had confronted her. By now it was probably long gone. Even then, Allison still held on to the small glimmer of hope that Sunstreaker was pulling some kind of cruel prank on her, and any moment he'd come back and let her out. That hope was fading fast as time seemed to move by in a slow, agonizing blur.

Allison was sitting in a corner, feeling incredibly sorry for herself and her voice coarse from calling out, when suddenly the car lurched. There was a moment of surprise as she leaned out with a hand to steady herself, then the car lurched again. Beneath her, the sound of wheels turning sent a constant rumbling throughout the car, and feeling sick, she realized that the train was moving. With a high-pitched squeal, she felt the grinding pull as the wheels grabbed the track, and the train began to move forward.

This caused two reactions within her. The first was the terrible notion of not knowing where she was heading. She didn't have any clue how far the train was going to travel, or how many days she would be stuck in there. This caused a brief moment of hysteria where her mind went wild, and she began to panic at the uncertainty this brought to question.

The second reaction was more positive, as she hung on to the notion that once the train stopped, it was possible that her car would be opened and she would be free. Rail workers would be moving around the train, and someone would have to hear her, or at the very least they would find her when the car was inspected or emptied. At this point she didn't care too much about the repercussions of being caught as a stowaway. Any human interaction would be infinitely less dreadful than the miserable Autobot that had put her in here. And at the very least, she could call Fowler and have the whole mess straightened out. The problem was, she didn't know how long that would take. For all she know the train could be traveling for days.

If for some reason she was so unlucky that none of that should happen, the only other alternative was that the Autobots would get to her first. How they would stop a moving train wasn't entirely something she wanted to entertain, and it also depended entirely on whether or not Sunstreaker actually told the others what he had done. Allison still wasn't entirely sure whether he'd had malicious intentions from the start, and she seriously wondered if he'd known the train was going to leave at some point. Unless he suddenly grew a conscience, or heaven forbid, panicked in the event that he came back for her only to find the train gone, she doubted he would openly tell anyone what he had done unless they forced it out of him. Surely though, he would tell his own brother, and Allison hoped that Sideswipe at least had enough decency in his body to do _something_ other than let a train carry her away to nowhere. If he _didn't_, she wasn't sure they would be able to find her in any reasonable amount of time without any real way to track her.

Taking a deep breath, Allison tried to still her shaking limbs and focus on the more practical possibility that the train would stop, and she would be free to contact the only real human that would be able to get her out of any tricky situations. Fowler would fix things and make everything right, she was sure of it. It wasn't a story she was particularly looking forward to re-telling to the surly agent, but it would still be a much more uplifting ending to the whole ordeal.

It was, of course, a slim hope, and considering she was starting to get hungry and tired, she wasn't feeling hopeful enough to be relieved just yet. But a small part of her mind clung to the fact that things might actually be OK if she waited it out. At least the car was warm, and a small pile of tarp she could feel under her fingers offered some tiny comfort.

Not knowing what else to do, Allison curled up on the tarp and closed her eyes. Her last thought before slipping off was that if she ever got back to the Autobot base, she would personally kill Sunstreaker. Then she would wring Wheeljack's neck for being so stubborn.

* * *

><p>Sunstreaker burst into the clearing where the train car carrying the human had been, quickly transforming as he skidded to a halt. His optics immediately went wide when he realized the train yard was a great deal emptier than it had been when he left it. He was certain that his bearings were correct, and he had left Allison here, but now she was gone. His first reaction was utter annoyance at this waste of time, like it was somehow Allison's fault, but it slowly ebbed away into real, primal panic as the sounds of approaching engines behind him signaled the arrival of Sideswipe and Bumblebee.<p>

Sideswipe transformed first, taking a few tentative steps towards his brother, who was already surveying the area, his posture tense.

"Which one is it? There's like a million of these containers..." There was confusion in his voice, but he was trying to mask it with sarcasm. Sunstreaker scoffed irritably at this but it ultimately went ignored.

By the time Bumblebee arrived close behind Sideswipe, the two Autobot twins were already looking around. He noted that one looked a bit more panicked then the other, but rather than jump to unfortunate conclusions, he took the time to let Sari get out before transforming. Bumblebee felt regret that he should have taken her home by now. He didn't want to alarm her, or get her all tangled up in the twins' latest shenanigans, especially when this particular instance was proving to be a lot more complicated.

This called to mind his conversation with Allison the day before; Sari was too young for this. She was smart, and had proved to be more apt in many respects when compared to other children her age, but this was a different matter entirely. Not many other children were involved with warring, mechanoid aliens that liked to pull idiotic, extremely dangerous pranks on their friends. In this matter, Allison's warning was fairly appropriate, and he found himself urging Sari to move some distance away from them before joining Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Given that there was no train on the tracks, and Sunstreaker looked appropriately bewildered and frustrated to the point of crushing something, things were not going to pan out well.

"I don't understand it," Sunstreaker muttered. "This is where I left her... on the train..." Sunstreaker was looking mildly afraid now, which was off-putting considering this particular Autobot was not easily shaken. This meant it was not a trick, and this was not some kind of intricate side-plot to whatever Sunstreaker had been planning. Something had gone wrong, and Bumblebee was seriously considering hitting Sunstreaker very, very hard.

"Did you not consider that this train would... I don't know, _move?_" Bumblebee said angrily, rubbing at his face in frustration. Sari had stepped back and was now standing some distance away, watching them with a still expression. Bumblebee kept glancing in her direction as if fearing she would attempt to take another swing at Sunstreaker. He wasn't entirely convinced that Sunstreaker at this point wouldn't take a swing back.

"This is where it was... I dropped her off right here..." Sunstreaker said, gesturing wildly. He was agitated, and clearly things did not go as planned for him. This did not bode well for any of them, and it was even more serious for Allison. Bumblebee had felt bad for her before, but now he really, was starting to feel stirrings of fear for her and what she was probably thinking. If the train wasn't here, that only meant one thing.

"Dropped her off?" Sari countered, angrily from behind Bumblebee, who turned half-expecting for her to make a break for it again, but she stood her ground. He'd never seen the younger girl so incensed, and he found himself feeding off of her stress, door wings twitching erratically as he braced himself to catch her. "_Imprisoned_, you mean." She added, folding her arms up haughtily. Sunstreaker looked at her with flashing optics, before turning to watch his brother walk to the tracks and kneel down. Sideswipe placed a hand on one of the steel track lines and fell silent for a moment. After a brief moment he shook his head.

"We just missed it," he said, stonily, his hand still resting on the track line. "Judging by the vibration I'd say it left about 15 minutes ago."

"Damn it, Sunstreaker!" Bumblebee cursed, momentarily shocked that Sideswipe would make such an observation, as he'd never demonstrated such deductive reasoning before. That was quickly replaced by a flash of panic-driven anger. "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"How was I supposed to know the train would actually go anywhere?" Sunstreaker shouted back, defensively, standing his ground. He was flexing his fists as if preparing for a fight, legs braced to spring forward. This didn't deter Bumblebee from getting into his face, smaller build or not.

"It's a train! It's supposed to move!"

"Getting in my face isn't going to bring the train back, now _move_!" Sunstreaker shoved with what must have been all his strength, because Bumblebee found himself on the ground milliseconds later. Processor still ringing from the fall, the pain from falling on his wings sent jolts through his spinal strut as he jumped back up into a readied crouch, prepared to physically fight Sunstreaker.

"Bumblebee, stop!" Sari cried pleadingly, but she went largely ignored.

"I wouldn't be in your face if you weren't such an aft-headed glitch for brains-"

Before Sunstreaker could work up a reasonable retort, or ready the punch that was most assuredly coming, Sideswipe stood abruptly and swung around, grabbing his brother's arm mid-swing and yanking him back.

"Traitor." The word was alarmingly simple in context, but the effect it had on Sunstreaker was profound. Coming from his own brother, it was clear that the harsh, guttural snarl from Sideswipe had found a vulnerable mark on Sunstreaker, and the normally brash Autobot was at a loss for words.

They simply watched each other in silence for what felt like an eternity. Sunstreaker's face was knitted tightly in a confused, deeply upset frown. Sideswipe's placid stare was only broken by the sharpness of his optics as he stared at his brother. The only way Bumblebee could describe the emotion between them was utter contempt, and it was something he had never seen pass between the twins before. It was like the world was unraveling right before him, and he got the distinct impression that something very precious had just shattered to pieces.

"I'm... I'm not a traitor. I just put her in a train car. They'll let her out when it stops." Sunstreaker snapped back, his nervous optics telling of the excuses he didn't quite believe himself. Sideswipe appeared unimpressed as his eyes narrowed.

"That isn't the point. And you don't really know where that train is going, so who knows how long she's going to be in there." When Sunstreaker had no response for this, clearly caught in a corner, Sideswipe continued. "And I don't appreciate having these decisions made for me. You've got no right trying to control me. If I want to be friends with someone, I have every right to."

"I thought..." Sunstreaker appeared to be confused for a moment, perhaps trying to work up a decent excuse for himself if at least to convince his own processor that what he'd done was okay. When he couldn't think of anything, he frowned, clearly defeated as he wilted. "I'm sorry." He reached out for his brother, but Sideswipe jerked away, shoving away the request for sympathy with a rough hand.

"You _don't_ think, ever. You just _do_. You never want to know what _I_ think, or what any of your friends think." Sideswipe turned away. "If you have any," he added with a derisive snort.

"Look," Sunstreaker pleaded. "I'm thinking now and I'm trying to fix things. I want to make things right."

"It's a little too late for that, Sunstreaker. She's gone now, and once again it's your friends, the ones you're always shoving away, who have to come in and undo your mess." Sideswipe turned to face his brother, jabbing his chest with a finger. "We're gonna find Allison, and then you're gonna apologize to her. And then you're gonna explain to everyone why you did what you did. Maybe if you're lucky, Prime will even let you stay assuming you still function after Wheeljack is done with you. Until then you do exactly as I tell you. Do you understand?" His optics glared at Sunstreaker, who could only nod. "Now the sooner we leave, the sooner..."

Sideswipe was interrupted by a loud buzzing sound, which seemed to emanate from Bumblebee's chest. The small, yellow Autobot suddenly felt rather _odd_, as a small, centralized vibration threw his chest components into disarray. Touching his chest questioningly, his audio receptors picked up a high-pitched ringing that startled him even further. Thinking he was suddenly going to break apart, he looked at Sari with some alarm, who seemed to have temporarily forgotten her bleak mood and looked positively aglow with laughter.

"Bumblebee, you're ringing!"

"Ringing?" He asked. "What the...?"

The twins both gave Bumblebee a combined, confused gaze, clearly wondering what was happening. Sari huffed and sauntered over to Bumblebee with a hand outstretched in request. She looked up at him with a wry smile on her lips.

"It's a cell phone, you dummy. I put Allison's phone in your glove compartment. It's still in there somewhere and it's ringing."

There was a quick whirring noise, and a small panel opened up in Bumblebee's chest revealing some kind of receding compartment. There was a _sproing_ noise as Allison's cell phone sprang from the opening and into the Autobot's hand. He held the phone lightly as he passed it to Sari to answer it.

"Hello?" the young girl asked. "This is Allison's phone... although I'm not Allison." Sari paused for a moment, and Bumblebee could barely make out the voice on the other end. He heard it well enough to unfortunately have a pretty good idea as to who it was. This was only confirmed when Sari looked up at him with a startled look of terror.

She pulled the phone away from her mouth for a moment and tried to cover the receiver end with her hand to muffle the sound.

"Um... what am I supposed to say? It's Wheeljack..."

Bumblebee shot a panicked look at Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, who both looked like their collective vocalizers had been ripped out. Knowing they were going to be thoroughly useless, Bumblebee turned back to Sari to try and work out what to say. He had expected someone to contact them eventually to check in, but what he hadn't expected was for Wheeljack to try and call Allison directly, and so soon.

"Tell him we're fine... everything is fine..."

"Wait, are you sure?" Sari looked frantic as she shook her head at Bumblebee, only getting an encouraging, but slightly rushed nod from him to emphasize the point. She brought the phone back to her ear. "We're fine. Everything is fine." She said unconvincingly, and Bumblebee winced. He gestured with his hands for her to wrap up the call, not wanting to give Wheeljack time to get suspicious, but Sari gave him a rude look of annoyance.

Without prompt, Sari pulled the phone away from her ear and pressed a button, and much to Bumblebee's horror he could now hear Wheeljack speaking. Even though they could naturally talk amongst each other internally through private channels, there was something about listening to Wheeljack talk through a human-made communication device that felt distinctly foreign.

"-We haven't heard from anyone. Where's Allison? And why are you answering her phone, Sari?" Wheeljack was mid-sentence by the time Bumblebee adjusted to listening to the slightly muffled, almost unintelligible speech through the phone's speaker. Looking back at the twins, they were staring at each other as if the rest of the world had ceased to exist. Sunstreaker looked like someone had just punched him in the waist circuits as he stared back at Sideswipe, who looked less than sympathetic. Realizing he was very much on his own, Bumblebee found his own insides a bit squirmy as he tried to think of what to tell Wheeljack. Sari had other ideas, and immediately went off into her own interpretation.

"Uh... she's not able to come to the phone right now," Sari said. There was a tiny piece of comfort in knowing that she wasn't completely lying.

"Right." Wheeljack sounded disappointed. "I thought she might not want to talk, but... Well, please tell her I need to talk with her, and that I'm sorry for not answering her calls. Tell her it's nothing to worry about... I just... eh, never mind," Wheeljack stopped, as if startled by what he was saying, and didn't continue speaking for a moment. "Look, just come back to base, all of you. You've done what you can out there and we need to finish prepping to move out."

"We will," Sari said, biting her lower lip. "Okay, bye Wheeljack." She hit the 'End Call' button, snapping the phone closed hurriedly and looked up at Bumblebee. "He's not going to take the news well," she said.

"I know," Bumblebee said. "But we can't just lie to him, and he's going to find out anyway so the sooner, the better." Bumblebee looked pointedly at Sunstreaker. "You better have a really, _really_ good excuse ready Sunstreaker. You picked the wrong Autobot to mess with. Wheeljack isn't dumb, but he _is_ crazy enough to jettison you right into space for this."

"Yeah yeah, I saw what happened to 'Screamer. That's why I need to do this alone." Sunstreaker said, turning to follow the tracks. He started to move away, but Sideswipe grabbed his brother's shoulder.

"Oh no you don't, I'm not letting you out of my sight. We're doing this together... you and me."

"Get off me. You said so yourself, that this is my problem. Well guess what, I'm dealing with it." Sunstreaker slapped away his brother's hand and broke away from the group, running down the tracks in the direction the train had gone. Startled, Bumblebee shot after him to stop him.

"Sunstreaker, stop! We have to go back!" Bumblebee was stopped by Sideswipe who brought an arm forward to stop him. Affronted, Bumblebee glared at him and pushed him off, growling. "What the Pit do you think you're doing? Your brother is going to get himself, and Allison, killed. He can't stop a moving train, and there is no way I'm letting him harm anyone on board. We have to go to Prime with this before we do anything. Fowler is the only one who can help us now."

"Let him go. You're not going to catch him. He won't let you." Sideswipe said tonelessly, putting his arm down. Sunstreaker had long since disappeared as a cloud of dust billowed up into the air, blowing towards the group and obscuring their sight of the fleeing Autobot. They watched Sunstreaker disappear for a few moments in silence before Sideswipe finally spoke. "Even if you did, he's mad enough right now to pound you into scrap just for following him. Leave him alone."

"I don't know how... but this is somehow _you're_ fault" Bumblebee snarled. "And I guarantee you everyone back home is going to see it that way too."

"_My_ fault?" Sideswipe argued back, angrily. "How is this _my_ fault?" His expression went from uncharacteristically emotionless to enraged like a switch being flipped, and Bumblebee found his already tested nerves once again being toyed with.

"_You've_ let your brother get away with slag like this time and again, and now look where it's got us." Bumblebee knew that wasn't exactly true, nor was it fair on Sideswipe. But his temper was flared and right now he found himself looking squarely for someone to be the source of his frustration.

"Bumblebee stop! Both of you!" Sari cried, a mixture of anger and panic, which was not a moment too soon. Bumblebee finally saw out of the corner of his optics that Sideswipe's fists were clenched in preparation of a fight. Bumblebee backed down, his systems slowing down as he tried to relax, wings fluttering anxiously in the aftermath.

"She's right..." Bumblebee said miserable, raising his arms in a bid for peace. "Fighting amongst ourselves isn't going to help. But, we need to talk to Prime and tell him what's happened. Maybe Wheeljack can track the train and figure out where it's going... or maybe Fowler can have it stopped. I don't know..." Bumblebee said hastily, trying to work out any possible, hopeful solution he could think of, praying silently to Primus that at least one of them was possible. "Besides, this is something we should probably tell Wheeljack... in person." He shuddered at the thought, and part of him felt rather sad, not at all looking forward to telling his friend what had happened to Allison. Words couldn't begin to describe how angry, and even betrayed Wheeljack was going to be, but Bumblebee had a pretty good idea as to what it might feel like, because he was feeling a little bit of it himself.

"Guess we better face the music..." Sideswipe said pitifully, and Bumblebee couldn't help but feel pity for him. Bumblebee did not envy Sideswipe's position at that moment, for he knew that He was going to be singled out and scrutinized more closely than anyone else. He was being forced to answer for his brother's actions with no choice in the matter, because the cause of all their problems had just took off and left them out to dry. It wasn't an enviable situation to be in.

The Autobots mobilized, turning back the way they had come, their collective moods uneasy. Even Sari was a little subdued, the absence of Allison dawning on her.


	16. Rock Bottom

**Longer chapter this time around, and will be followed by some longer chapters to keep things moving. Also, I'm going to try and post these more frequently now that I've got some things sorted out on my end.**

**Also, some Sunstreaker induced violence to follow, so just to be safe rated M for graphic beatings...  
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**Characters belong to Hasbro/Takara, etc..**

* * *

><p>Sunstreaker's engines flared and his tires spun into the dirt as he followed the tracks that the train had taken. His optic sensors were able to pick up trace elements of heat around the tracks, making it easier for him to pick up Allison's direction on the fly. He'd long since exited the more wooded area, and was now driving across open plane. The only cover around was low lying scrub. Dirt and small pebbles flew up from under his wheels, bouncing off his underside. He was not looking forward to buffing out those scuffs later, but despite his irritation, he pressed onwards.<p>

There was more at stake at the moment then just his vanity, like his neck for starters. Prime wasn't one to physically assault a fellow Autobot, but given Sunstreaker's almost malicious actions, the yellow Autobot really didn't want to risk finding out if the big bot had it in him.

"Come on," he muttered to himself. "How far could this train have possibly gone?" he added to his own thoughts with some irritation. Sideswipe must have been wrong about the time the train left, because he wasn't picking it up on his sensors. He had his doubts that Sideswipe had even known what he was talking about... judging how long ago it had left just by touching the tracks? That was something he'd expect from Wheeljack, or maybe Ratchet, but Sideswipe? Dopey, obnoxiously selfish Sideswipe? No.

Sunstreaker knew he would have caught up to the train by now, given that he himself was traveling well over speed limits deemed safe by idiotic human traffic laws. Earth trains simply didn't go that fast, shockingly archaic as they were, so it must have left much sooner than they had realized. This only annoyed Sunstreaker more, because it was more of his time wasted hunting it down.

If he didn't return back to base with an Allison, then he may as well not return at all, but noble Optimus Prime and everyone else would hunt him down and string him up anyway. That couldn't happen, so for his own sake, he needed the human. He couldn't care less about her, but he had to look out for his own interest. As much as he hated to admit it on such a filthy planet he had no where else to go. He _needed_ to be on Optimus Prime's good side, because the alternative was deceptively terrifying.

Sunstreaker sped on for a while on his own, trying not to think of the trouble he was going to be in once he got back to base. He was well aware of the dangers the Decepticons were posing to the other Autobots, and he would have rather been there if only for the chance to scrap a few himself. It had been far too long that he'd felt the rush of battle, and his servos were itching to do some damage to a few Decepticon faces. Instead, he was out in the middle of nowhere trying to chase down a train, just to bring back one single, idiotic human.

His engine faltered for a moment as something within his processor snapped, and he felt an emotion that was oddly unnatural to him. So much so, that at first it was difficult to place. He thought for a moment of Wheeljack: bossy, arrogant know-it-all who was too busy blowing himself up to be of any real use anymore... but that wasn't entirely true. Admittedly, Wheeljack had never exactly done anything wrong by him and Sideswipe. He'd even covered for them on a few occasions when they'd been late to patrol duty, or had forgotten to submit a report to Prowl on time... or had inadvertently destroyed something of Ratchet's. That didn't make him completely unbearable... but Wheeljack was still an old, outdated, more than mildly crazy Autobot who walked around the place like he was more important than Optimus Prime. But then why did Sunstreaker suddenly feel a little bit guilty?

He thought of Sideswipe, and remembered how betrayed his brother had looked. This memory alone was enough to send Sunstreaker's thoughts into further disarray. His brother—the other half of his own spark—had been angry with him, and Sunstreaker knew on a very instinctive level that it was something he wanted to go away. He remembered being very small, barely sparked and alone with his brother; homeless on the streets and wanting all the angry, loud voices of the much bigger mechs to simply stop and go away. This was how that felt.

Somehow he thought that Wheeljack would look just as angry and betrayed as his brother had, and as much as the older Autobot irritated him... he was having a hard time justifying breaking his spark like that. Even if he didn't really understand what made the stupid human so important, he knew that to Wheeljack, she was, and that was all that really mattered.

He was starting to grow more and more irritated thinking about how this was causing him so much internal grief and conflict, when his sensors sounded a proximity alarm as two foreign signatures slipped into his awareness. It took barely a second for the two signatures to be identified as Decepticon, and they were closing in on him from behind at an alarming rate.

Sunstreaker kept driving forward at top speed. All his previous musings were pushed out of his mind without so much as a second thought, his prior guilt completely replaced by the strong desire to engage the enemy personally. His battle protocols kicked in as the exhilarating rush of the promise of combat nurtured something of a sadistic eagerness within him that was too good to keep at bay. Like a sparkling that couldn't stay away from energon goodies, Sunstreaker could not resist the euphoric high that was his systems preparing for the fight he had sorely been missing for too long. He would lose precious time needed to catch up to the train, but there was no way he couldn't let two, perfectly good Decepticons go to waste. They'd only chase him anyway, and that would get irritating quick.

The signatures themselves were unrecognizable as far as who they were, which could have only meant that they were drone troopers: caste-less, nameless Decepticons whose only purpose was to follow orders. Sad really, but their lot in life wasn't entirely his problem, as their identities were only confirmed as soon as they shot into visual range. It wasn't possible to tell if they were from Megatron's main base or some other splinter cell, but they were sleek looking, both a dark shade of purple with tinted windows and large spoilers on their backs.

The two Decepticon drones pulled into a horizontal formation as they drove side-by-side, their purpose immediately obvious as they drifted in Sunstreaker's direction. The Autobot silently urged them forward, hoping they would dare try to take him on, because two Decepticons for him was not a challenge.

Armor plating on the Decepticon flanks shifted and detached from their main bodies, as matching projectile launchers slid out to lock in place from the machinations within. It didn't take Sunstreaker a second to realize what was about to happen, and he pulled sharply to the left as the side of the first Decepticon vehicle opened fire, a series of homing missiles expelled from the exposed weaponry.

The missiles followed Sunstreaker as he zigzagged left and right, attempting to throw off the incoming hazards as his own internal systems blared alarms into his awareness, telling him missile-lock had been achieved. With a snarl of his own, Sunstreaker forced a shut-down on all his battle warnings to remove the distraction.

Up ahead, Sunstreaker barely saw the ravine at the end of the incline before he'd nearly hit it. Wheels grinding into the dried, brittle grass and soil, he swerved to bank the edge of the drop to prevent himself from falling, just as a well-timed missile impacted with the ground meters from his vehicular mode.

The resulting explosion blossomed into a mini fireball with enough percussive force to knock Sunstreaker sideways, the impact sending him straight over the edge as he instinctively unfolded in hurried transformation to catch himself. He managed to dig his hands into the soil and rock trying to stop his descent, but gravity proved to have other ideas as his body was pulled to the bottom. His hands tried desperately to gain leverage and stop himself as they dug deep pits into the earth, dislodging rock and soil like trails in the direction of his fall.

Another missile shot over the edge above Sunstreaker and curved downward, smashing into the ravine face in front of him, knocking his hands loose and sending him plummeting to the ground below. He hit the ground flat on his back with a painful crunch as a third and final missile sailed towards him, moments before the two Decepticons crested the top of the ravine.

Sunstreaker tucked and rolled, throwing his body sideways just as the missile found a mark on the ground. The resulting explosion sent dirt and rocks into the air, hitting his plating like a thousand tiny insects trying to sting him at once: completely harmless, and most especially pointless.

Up above, the two Decepticons that had reached the apex of the cliff shot off the edge, transforming as they slid down the slope to meet him. Sunstreaker wasted no time in pulling out a blaster from his hip compartment, and sprang up from his readied crouch firing. At least one shot hit it's mark on one of the nameless Decepticons, the energized bullet colliding with the sensitive, vulnerable circuitry of an optic. It's unremarkable head exploded in a shower of sparks and energon as the bullet passed completely through its cranial structure. It fell to the ground twitching as Sunstreaker shot past firing at the second. The Autobot wasn't sure if the spasming body was still functioning or not, but he had no opportunity to find out as the second Decepticon tackled him, bringing them both to the ground.

Sunstreaker's blaster was knocked from his hand, and as he made a move to reach for it the Decepticon yanked his arm back to pull his weapon just out of reach. The Decepticon trooper was strong, but only strong enough to gain the upper-hand for a fraction of a second. Sunstreaker's rage powered his motor functions and channeled his anger into strength enough to shove the Decepticon over onto his back. The overpowering desire to maim such an offensive blemish to the Cybertronian race rippled through Sunstreaker's body, and the resonating crunch of his fist connecting with the Decepticon's face instilled a guilty satisfaction within him.

No longer satisfied with his fists alone, Sunstreaker reached out for the first nearby rock he could see, just larger than the size of his own fist. The stunned Decepticon put up next to no fight, unable to cope with the assault straight to the processor circuits from Sunstreaker's combined fists time and again. Venting heavily with heated exertion, Sunstreaker brought the over-sized rock down repeatedly on the Decepticon's face.

The Decepticon's limbs flailed weakly as energon and shards of plating hit Sunstreaker's yellow armor, marring the surface with the splotched, pinkish oil stains of its lifeblood. Metal caved in on itself and as the more fragile internal components shattered, one of its eyes completely smashed open, revealing a heated red glow recessed in the orbital socket.

Eventually Sunstreaker stopped, frustration spent on such a repetitive activity as he realized that this had been just what he'd needed. He had been stewing in his own anger over this one, stupid human that had so far done nothing but cause him misery and throw everything into disorganized chaos. He was now filthy, and had at least an evening's worth of buffing to look forward to which could have been avoided. These Decepticons had proved to be the perfect distraction to vent his pent-up aggression over his own actions, and the reactions of everyone around him. All because of this one femme.

Admittedly, if these Decepticons hadn't come around, he wasn't able to convince himself that he wouldn't have inadvertently killed the human himself if he was too worked up to be careful.

The boiling fire that had been raging inside him had cooled for only a few seconds when the sensation of warm energon splattering onto his face re-awakened the lust for destruction anew. The Decepticon spat on him, damaged oral components leaking vital fluids as it hissed a profane insult in garbled Cybertronian. Sunstreaker brought the rock down one final time, causing the Decepticon's face to crumple, optic lights dimming as it spluttered again, energon and internal fluids gushing from every crack and damaged seam.

The Autobot quickly stood up and limped to retrieve his blaster where it had fallen, tossing the bloodied rock as he stood over the downed Decepticon. The loser of their brawl managed a laugh, its blinded face staring up unseeing into the alien sky as it hissed at him in human English, energon pooling around its oral cavity as it struggled to vocalize.

"Do it," it spat, daring Sunstreaker to finish the job. "Do it, _Autobot_."

Sunstreaker put three bullets into the Decepticons face, ending its life.

"That's what the insignia says," he muttered, holstering his weapon back into his hip compartment.

Stepping back, Sunstreaker looked at the carnage around him, and for a minute he admired the symphony of his handiwork. It had been far too long since he'd been able to pull a few Decepticon's apart, and he had welcomed back the rush like an old friend.

Suddenly, jarringly so, as he looked around in contemplative silence, Sunstreaker realized he actually felt quite empty. Looking at the greying Decepticon corpses around him, dead in pools of their own lifeblood, he realized that he felt very... unfulfilled.

He had never felt this way before, after any battle, he had always felt invigorated, and alive. Somehow, this time he felt like something inside of him had died along with the Decepticon filth on the ground. Sideswipe's absence and lack of contact was like a sharp stab against his spark, and their shared bond suddenly felt very lifeless. He felt alone.

Backing up a couple of feet, Sunstreaker transformed into his alternate mode, suddenly feeling moody and unsatisfied. He'd fallen behind, and he had no intention of losing time. Notifying Optimus of the attack would just have to wait.

* * *

><p>Bumblebee flexed his fingers nervously as he approached the hidden doors to their soon-to-be ex-base. For some reason the stillness in the air seemed amplified, his sensors more alert as his sole thought was concentrated on the reaction he would get from both Wheeljack and Optimus Prime. Beside him, Sari walked alongside him and Sideswipe, having opted to give Bumblebee a little space.<p>

Bumblebee had almost been hoping to slip past Wheeljack and enter the base unnoticed, wanting to tell Optimus Prime first if Wheeljack was busy in his lab. Part of him hoped that telling Optimus Prime first would help provide insight as to how exactly to tell Wheeljack. The more selfish part of him had hoped that Optimus would opt to tell Wheeljack himself. Neither of those would come to pass, as conveniently, the Autobot engineer was standing just outside of their base, appearing to be calibrating an external sensor. There was no getting past him.

Wheeljack stood with his back to the woods, staring down into a data-pad he had in his hands. When he heard them approaching, he turned to face them. His head cocked to one side, and Bumblebee knew he was most likely noticing the missing party members.

"Maybe I should wait outside?" Sari whispered to Bumblebee with some hesitation, noting the confused, somewhat startled look on Wheeljack's face. Bumblebee looked between her and his Autobot friend, wondering if keeping Sari out of the way was a good idea should fisticuffs begin to fly.

"No," Bumblebee said. "Come in with us. It's too dangerous to hang around out here. Just... find someplace to sit for a little while. This might get...loud."

Bumblebee closed the small distance to Wheeljack, who put his hand on the yellow Autobot's shoulder.

"Good to see you, Bee. Uhm... aren't ya missing a few?" Wheeljack said brightly, vocal panels flashing a blue that was far too cheerful than it should have been, and it made Bumblebee wince internally. This was not going to be fun.

"Sunstreaker...had to go do something quickly. He'll be back soon." Bumblebee lied, trying to stall for time. They needed to tell everyone, at the same time, otherwise none of them might be alive to tell anyone else after Wheeljack was through with them.

"And Allison? Is she with Sunstreaker?" Wheeljack almost seemed oblivious to the potential fact that Allison was in fact missing, or worse. His mind was immediately leaping to what in his mind was the logical conclusion. If he had any notions to the contrary, his expression didn't give anything away, as he looked on almost expectantly.

"Yeah, about that. Let's head inside first, Wheeljack. I think Sari's tired, and I have something I need to tell Prime."

Wheeljack paused for a moment, his gaze on Sideswipe. The Autobot twin had a blank expression on his face. If Wheeljack had been trying to read something, he would not have found anything. When Sideswipe didn't offer anything in return, Wheeljack appeared to forget what might have been on his mind, instead turning to the small human at their feet.

"Of course, how silly of me. Hi Sari," Wheeljack said politely. "Long day?"

Sari nodded, going along with Bumblebee's pretense. "Yeah," she said simply.

Wheeljack opened the door for them, and followed the group into the hall. Bumblebee sensed Wheeljack's optics on his back while nobody spoke. He knew something was wrong. Bumblebee could sense the discomfort in the air like a gas ready to ignite.

The journey to the main com room was silent, until the voice of Ratchet could be heard through the cracked open door. Optimus Prime and Ratchet were already engaged in heated conversation. Heated, in that Ratchet was all but yelling Optimus Prime's audio sensors out while the Autobot leader simply stood there nodding pensively.

"I'm telling you Optimus," Ratchet was saying. "I _needed _that equipment at the western facility as soon as possible!"

"Agent Fowler promised he would have it transported as soon as it was safe to do so," Prime said, obviously trying to soothe Ratchet's ruffled gears. "If he thinks it's in your best interest to wait an extra day, then we should be thankful that..." Prime stopped talking when he noticed Wheeljack and the others enter the room. "Ah, welcome back, Autobots. We were getting worried."

"_He _was," Ratchet grumbled. "As far as I'm concerned, if you don't stay in regular contact then you deserve to be jumped by 'Cons."

Bumblebee looked down at Sari, and nodded at her, indicating for her to find some safe ground. Sari took the hint and walked briskly out of the room. Once she was clear, Bumblebee cleared his throat. He really didn't want to do this, and having the moment finally arrive was proving to be terrifying.

"Uh... Optimus? We have to tell you something about Sunstreaker. You need to hear this too, Wheeljack."

Wheeljack's attention fell squarely on Bumblebee, confirming his previous assumption that Wheeljack had been wary from the start. His voice was steady when he spoke.

"I'm listening."

The Autobots listened as Bumblebee explained the day's events: Allison stepping away then disappearing, followed by Sunstreaker's admissions as to what he'd done, leading to a missing train and by proxy a missing Allison. All this while, Optimus didn't say anything, except to prompt Bumblebee to continue every now and then or to reiterate a particular point. Wheeljack's expression was almost impossible to gauge, however, and this frightened Bumblebee even more than Prime's stern, level gaze. The white Autobot merely stood there, data pad still clutched in one hand. Bumblebee had fully expected Wheeljack to leap on him and beat him until he was nothing but splattered gears, but the brutal beating never came.

After Bumblebee was done, Optimus Prime turned to Sideswipe, who up until that point had been silent and woefully unhelpful.

"Sideswipe. You know your brother more than anyone. Is everything as Bumblebee reported?"

Sideswipe nodded dully. "Yes, Prime. Word for word."

Prime only nodded, then looked over at Wheeljack. "I understand if there's something you want to say, Wheeljack. Now would be a good time."

The white Autobot looked at Sideswipe, then Bumblebee. There was strain in his voice when he spoke, but he was surprisingly level. "Given the situation, I'm not sure there's much I can say right now that wouldn't be deemed inappropriate, Optimus. I assume there is no chance that I might be allowed to head out myself to look for her?"

"Unfortunately I cannot allow that, Wheeljack. Your expertise is needed here, and it is much too dangerous for you to be on your own out there considering what you just recently endured. Understand that I appreciate your feelings on the matter; I know this must be hard for you."

Wheeljack nodded. "In that case, I ask permission to take my leave for a few clicks. I need to be alone."

"Of course, old friend," Optimus nodded. He watched as Wheeljack left, his only acknowledgment to Bumblebee and Sideswipe a curt nod. Instinctively, the two younger Autobots jumped when the engineer acknowledged them, fearing the beating that was sure to come at some point had finally arrived. Instead, Wheeljack pushed past them silently, leaving them alone with Optimus Prime and Ratchet.

Eventually Optimus Prime spoke again. "What Sunstreaker has done goes beyond insubordination. His actions has placed a human ally that we swore to protect in grave danger, and in doing so he has disgraced not just himself, but the Autobots as a whole. Not only that, but he has hurt a friend in ways that Primus will never allow me to understand. Normally, I would be given to handing him in to authorities above my own."

"The young punk deserves no less," Ratchet grunted, the frustrated anger on his face clear in his whitened optics. "Maybe it would teach him a little respect."

"However," continued Prime. "Given our situation, I think it would be in our best interest to simply allow Sunstreaker the opportunity to redeem himself."

"But...Prime..." Ratchet protested. "Surely you don't think he can be trusted to be alone with her again, do you? I mean... who knows what he might do with her out there."

"My brother has made a lot of stupid mistakes," argued Sideswipe, voice lacking the strength of the words he was trying to convey. Sideswipe was upset, and Bumblebee found that he couldn't blame him. "And he really, _really _likes ripping up 'Cons... but he's not a monster. He'll do the right thing. I'm sure of it."

"_Pah_," Ratchet muttered, unconvinced. "I hope you're right. For Allison's sake."

Sideswipe looked up at Prime, avoiding eye-contact with the medic and nodded sullenly. "Thank you Prime. I appreciate the chance you've given my brother. I know I might not even have been able to do that." Sideswipe looked down with dimmed optics, and it was clear that he was still having a hard time processing what his brother had done. Bumblebee remembered watching the two of them argue back at the train yard, and Sideswipe had looked so _betrayed_. Even though Sunstreaker wasn't his brother, Bumblebee couldn't help but feel a little bit betrayed as well. He couldn't even begin to imagine how Wheeljack was feeling

"We all fall from grace from time to time." Optimus Prime's gaze went blank for a moment, as if he'd lost himself in his own thoughts. His optics darkened as he blinked out of his trance, and he turned to Ratchet. "Ratchet... I think you may want to go... watch our scientist for a little while. I believe he might need a friend."

Ratchet nodded, and moved to walk out of the room. He stopped short of Bumblebee and Sideswipe, giving them one agonizingly long glare before he exited the room. Before Bumblebee could say anything, Optimus Prime made a sound to clear his throat.

"And Bumblebee," Optimus Prime said, turning. Bumblebee winced, because when Prime turned his back, that typically meant he was angry, regardless of his serene composure. "I couldn't help but notice that Sari is still here. I strongly urge you to take our young friend home to her father." He was silent for a moment, hands clasped behind his back as he watched a monitor before him. The monitor itself was dark, but Bumblebee was familiar Prime's method of coping with his disappointment in them, as they all were.

"_Now._"

"Yes sir..." Bumblebee said, wilting. Sideswipe stood there silently for a moment but allowed Bumblebee to pull him out of the room.

* * *

><p>Ratchet was bracing himself for the storm he was about to walk into, as he stopped just short of Wheeljack's laboratory. The large doors were cracked open, just enough that he could hear the destruction happening within. Wheeljack had been remarkably collected upon hearing the news of Allison's unplanned departure, but it was now painfully obvious that the Autobot was taking out his frustration on his entire laboratory worth of equipment that hadn't yet been packed.<p>

Venting air heavily, Ratchet was about to pull the door open when a very large, badly damaged computer monitor came crashing through the doorway, smashing into the opposite wall as it shattered to pieces on the floor.

Furiously irritated, Ratchet threw all caution aside and stormed inside, immediately raising his arm up to shield his face as a small yet devastatingly polygonal piece of debris pinged harmlessly off the shiny white surface of his arm plating. He lowered his arm angrily, yelling.

"Wheeljack, what in Primus' name are you doing?"

The enraged Autobot was pacing around the room in erratic zig-zags, picking up various pieces of scattered equipment and hurling them against the walls, effectively transforming his lab into a war zone. Exposed wires and mangled pieces of what had once been nearly, or fully completed projects were strewn about the floor as if Wheeljack had simply been tearing pieces off in his frustration. He was buzzing angrily, vocal panels flashing an erratic red as he ripped apart the central interface terminal, throwing the monitor to the side as if it were simply trash that needed to be discarded.

"I would advise a hasty exit, Ratchet." Wheeljack was remarkably calm, despite the fact that physically he looked ready to pull someone apart. Unable to believe the vision of wanton destruction and distress in front of him, Ratchet said the only thing that came to his mind.

"Wheeljack, please! Think about what you're doing! This equipment...it's...it's...well it's irreplaceable!"

Wheeljack stopped at his worktable, back turned to Ratchet as he vented air heavily almost as if he were panting from the effort of destroying his surroundings. His wing panels were standing on end aggressively, twitching with each heave of his body as he exhaled air.

Realizing that what he'd said was incredibly insensitive, Ratchet paused as he tried to actually consider his next words before he spoke. He saw Wheeljack's shoulders tense just before he slammed a massive fist down onto his own worktable, leaving a gigantic dent in its wake. This was the best moment Ratchet was going to get if he hoped to intervene without getting accidentally torn apart with the rest of Wheeljack's equipment. The Autobot had stopped moving and it was almost as if he were waiting for Ratchet to speak.

"I can't leave her alone for five minutes, Ratchet..." Wheeljack said between cycles of air. "It's like she's some kind of... disaster magnet."

"Well... you certainly found her, didn't you?" Ratchet blurted without thinking, wincing as he immediately realized that his attempt at humor wasn't going to help. Thankfully, Wheeljack let out the tiniest of laughs, though it was weak and barely audible.

"I'm serious, Ratchet." His voice was slightly calmer, however strained, and it was obvious he was trying to keep his wits together. "I'm having trouble seeing how I can keep protecting her if she keeps walking off into danger."

"That isn't fair, and you know it," Ratchet said. "This isn't Allison's fault. If you're going to blame someone, blame Sunstreaker. This was his doing, not hers."

"I upset her, and she ran off with him."

Ratchet almost laughed. "You think she chose to leave? Remember when I told you I talked to her? Nowhere in that conversation did I get a sense that she had any inclination to run off and lock herself in a train car, so I don't know where you'd get that idea."

"I... don't know."

Ratchet risked making the trek forward to stand near Wheeljack, admittedly a bit fearful for his own life considering the uncharacteristically destructive tantrum he'd just witnessed. Wheeljack certainly liked to break things, but this had been unusually violent for the normally more passive engineer.

When he was able to get near Wheeljack without having a shard of metal jabbed into his optic, he placed a steady hand on his friend's shoulder and squeezed lightly.

"Destroying your laboratory isn't going to help right now. Besides, what were you going to do when you ran out of things to break?"

"I don't know," Wheeljack said. "I was thinking of maybe moving onto your stuff."

Ratchet hoped that Wheeljack was joking, but admittedly he wasn't really sure. "Then it's a good thing I stopped you," he muttered.

Wheeljack suddenly wilted, wing panels dropping as he leaned forward in exhaustion, energy spent from his previous emotional peak. Head bowed, he spoke into the table surface quietly.

"I need to find her..."

"Sunstreaker will find her."

"No." Wheeljack straightened stiffly. "I am not letting that arrogant little glitch get away with this. I've covered for them more times than I'd care to admit, and this is how they repay me," Wheeljack said, a flash of anger returning as his optics burned a hot white. He shrugged off Ratchet's gesture of peace on his shoulder as he turned to exit his laboratory. "Speaking of arrogant little glitches..." He made a bee-line for the door with purpose in his stride, and it took Ratchet a moment to process what he'd just said before the urgency struck him.

"Oh dear," Ratchet sighed, before he realized just what Wheeljack's intentions were as he disappeared from the lab. He followed suit, ready to provide damage control for the confrontation that was about to begin.

* * *

><p>Wheeljack rounded the corner angrily, his optics flashing left and right as he hunted for his target. He entered the mess hall, and immediately spotted Sideswipe sitting alone, looking a little dejected.<p>

The red Autobot looked up at his approach, just in time to see the white flash of burning hatred that was Wheeljack, and he toppled right off the seat in his awkward attempt to flee in fright. Undeterred, Wheeljack bolted across the room, landing mere inches from the frightened ball of red as he crawled backwards in a pitiful attempt to elude him. Sideswipe held up his arms in front of his face, whimpering pitifully..

"Please don't kill me, Wheeljack..."

"Oh I'm not going to kill you...not until you tell me what _really_ happened."

"Anyone ever tell you how terrifying you are when you're mad?" Sideswipe was trying to mask his terror with nervous laughter, cracking a joke that Wheeljack did not find the least bit amusing. "Of course, you're a scientist, aren't you Wheeljack? You're always mad. Heh."

"Not funny," Wheeljack grabbed the younger Autobot by the shoulder plate and hefted him up off the ground. Sideswipe shrieked in high-pitched terror as he was pulled to his feet, and Wheeljack slammed him up against the wall and brought him to eye level.

"Hey... uh... 'J-Jackie.. f-friend.. did I ever tell you how much I a-appreciate h-having you around?"

"Right now, you're not my friend. Start talking."

"T-that's a l-little h-h-harsh, ain't it? A-anyone ever t-tell ya that you g-g-got the loveliest blue optics in the whole pl-"

"_Now_," Wheeljack said, shoving Sideswipe against the wall with barely restrained hostility.

"I-I don't know what Sunny was thinking.. honest... I had n-nothing to do with it I swear," Sideswipe squeaked, trembling as he spoke. "I'm sorry... Wheeljack. I'm... I'm really confused right now and you're really hurting me and-"

"Sideswipe," Wheeljack growled, placing his own face mere inches from the struggling red Autobot. "I'm giving you a chance to explain, in your words, just what your brother did to Allison. This is your one chance to remove yourself from my line of fire. So you better impress me, and you better do it _fast _because I am _this close _to snapping like a twig."

"I think you're already past that point Wheelj-_oomph!_" Sideswipe was cut short by another harsh shove.

"Final warning Sideswipe. Tell me, or so help me..." Wheeljack reached down to his hip and dislodged a green, cylindrical device. He pressed a button, and the device glowed. "...This little sucker is going to be the last thing you ever see as I cram it down your throat." Sideswipe's optics bulged as he eyed the blinking explosive with trepidation. The narrowing of Wheeljack's optics to mere slits of searing white was Sideswipe's final warning before utter obliteration struck.

"ENOUGH." Optimus Prime's baritone ruptured the tense atmosphere of the room, just as Sideswipe had started begging in terrified, nervous laughter for his life. Wheeljack glanced over his shoulder and saw Prime just inside the room, flanked by Ratchet and Prowl, and all he could feel was utter annoyance at Ratchet for seeing fit to fetch Prime like a guard dog. He was angry, and it hurt so badly that it was making him confused; just as angry and confused as he had been right before he'd been about to kill Starscream, and Allison had stopped him.

"Wheeljack, you're going to kill him." Prowl said with an infuriatingly even tone.

"That was the plan," Wheeljack snorted, instilling a frightened wheeze from Sideswipe who was still pinned against the wall.

"Killing our own is not going to solve anything, nor will it undo what Sunstreaker has done," Prime said, and while his words held the promise of warmth, his tone was anything but kindness. Prime was _mad_. "You are taking out your aggression on the wrong Autobot."

Wheeljack felt a fleeting sadness tug at his spark as he realized that Optimus Prime was right. He had lost control, and had sought to take out his anger on Sideswipe in lieu of his brother, the real culprit of this mess, and it simply wasn't fair. Nothing was entirely fair to him right then, and he was feeling a devastatingly confusing sadness that was making it hard to keep a single, coherent thought together. He pressed the button on his explosive grenade, deactivating it.

"You're right, Optimus," he said sadly, letting go of Sideswipe who slipped past him with a terrified squeak, only to drop himself at Prowl's feet.

"Please P-Prowl... lock me up... with Starscream... I don't care... I'm safer in jail... anywhere but near Wheeljack! He's crazy!"

"With the Decepticon?" Prowl queried in genuine curiosity.

"Wheeljack wants to kill us both, so I'd rather take my chances with the unarmed 'Con!"

"That won't be necessary," Optimus Prime said. "Wheeljack won't come looking for you again, I promise." Prime turned to Prowl and nodded. "Please make sure Sideswipe is properly debriefed, I need to speak with him and Bumblebee shortly." Prowl nodded and pulled the squirming mess at his feet up, practically carrying Sideswipe out of the room. Ratchet followed the two, leaving Wheeljack alone with Optimus Prime.

"I don't know what you want me to say Optimus."

"I don't want you to say anything, though an apology to Sideswipe might be warranted. I also want you to realize that you're out of control. This isn't like you Wheeljack, and I'm deeply concerned for your sake, and for Allison's."

"You're right, Optimus," Wheeljack murmured. "You're always right." he added, feeling sorry, but unsure of how to voice it.

"Not always," Prime said, softening. He stepped forward with a hand outstretched to steady Wheeljack, who felt as if he was about to fall apart. "I want you to know that I am not uncaring in this matter, and I know that in your spark you want to do what you feel is right and go find her... I don't know that I could argue with this, but right now the Decepticons are targeting us, not her. She will be safe for the moment, and Sunstreaker will bring her back."

"You really can't be sure."

"I will be sending Bumblebee and Sideswipe back out to follow them... but I'm sorry old friend. I need you here right now." Prime stepped back. "And I don't just mean physically."

"No convincing you, huh?" Wheeljack asked.

"No, I'm afraid not. Ratchet will look after you, while the search is carried out, to ensure your ease of mind."

"Are you sure we're talking about the same Ratchet?" Wheeljack said, trying to relieve his frustrations with a lame attempt at a joke, but it didn't help him feel better. He wasn't entirely sure _what_ would make him feel better, other than wringing a certain yellow Autobot's neck.

"We are preparing to move out. I want you to pull yourself together and finish gathering the rest of your equipment. As soon as I hear something from Bumblebee and Sideswipe, I will let you know." Prime said, gesturing out the door in clear request for Wheeljack to leave.

"If I have any equipment _left_," Wheeljack muttered unenthusiastically, as he left the room, spark heavy with troubled grief.


	17. The Lull

**Short chapter tonight, but next chapter is when shit really goes down... literally... sort of... but I will say some more Transformers: Prime characters will show up. I'll give you a hint: not Autobots.**

**Also, admittedly I don't know the area that the story is taking place in... so there will be some fudging of facts, like travel times, things being in the area, etc. I'm aware it might not be 100% consistent with reality, but I've done my best to keep it at least in line with the story itself. Hey, they travel pretty quickly in movies, right?  
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**Anyway, the usual: Transformers characters don't belong to me, etc. Hasbro/Takara  
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* * *

><p>Allison had lost track of how long she'd been traveling, but by her own estimate it couldn't have been more than a few hours. In the dark solitude of the train car, with nothing but the constant rumble of the wheels on the tracks, it had felt like much longer. She had tried getting some rest, but hadn't managed to stay comfortable for long, and she was starting to get restless.<p>

She was leaning with her back to the wall of the car trying to doze off, when a loud creaking sound and a change in the rhythm coming from the train's wheels signaled that the train was slowing down. She sat upright, feeling relief wash over her as she waited with bated breath, hoping that the train was preparing to stop. Allison was no train enthusiast, but she knew from common knowledge that the giant machines took a long time between actually applying the brakes and coming to a full stop, so she knew she was in for a bit of a wait. Even so, she couldn't stop herself from feeling anxious, the time creeping by agonizingly slow.

Unsurprisingly, it took a long while for the train to completely come to rest, but with a huge shudder and a clanging of heavy metal, it eventually stopped. The car became still, and Allison was suddenly aware that she was likely about to be discovered as a stowaway. At this point, she was more than willing to undergo that embarrassment than remain inside the car a moment longer. _That is,_ she thought, _so long as they intend to open the car._

When nothing immediately changed, Allison tried yelling out for someone, engaging in the endeavor for a long time but there was no response. Nobody came to the car, and she pressed her ear to the door to see if she could hear any activity, but as far as she could tell nothing was happening outside. For all she knew, she could very well have been in some random compound where she'd be left for days, or longer. This urgent worry prompted her to start banging on the door in frustration, shouting again in hopes of catching a guard or worker.

Eventually, the sound of the locks on the other side of the door being released interrupted her, causing her to push herself backwards in surprise. There was a loud clanging noise, and the door flew open, allowing the bright white light of the open air to flood in. The intensity blinded her, causing her to throw her hand up in front of her eyes as she blinked away the painful glare. She briefly caught the silhouette of someone, but it took a moment before she could focus on any of the person's features and realize that there was a man standing there. She exhaled loudly. "Finally..."

"I'm assuming you have an explanation for this?"

Allison's eyes finally adjusted to the light, and she saw there were actually two men outside. The one standing forward was clearly a police officer, and behind him what she could only guess to be a rail worker, who looked pale and slightly frightened. Allison glanced at the officer's badge as she hastily tried to think of what to say, and she noted the word Minneapolis emblazoned around the edge. Fantastic. She was in a completely different state.

_I'm going to kill you Sunstreaker._

"I can... though it's a little complicated," Allison said, stalling. "I'm just grateful you found me." She added as the officer looked at her suspiciously, hand resting at his hip where she couldn't help but notice his holstered pistol.

"Found you? Generally stowaways don't want to be found." The officer offered her a hand, helping her out of the car. Allison felt relieved to be standing on solid, stable ground again, despite the wobbling of her legs. "Usually they like to stay hidden."

"I'm not a stowaway... that's the truth," Allison said, feeling stupid as she felt herself blush. "I didn't climb in on purpose," she said honestly. Already she was running through possible excuses, fake stories to tell to inevitably avoid the truth. There was no way she could tell the truth.

The officer looked at her with the corner of his eye. "You saying someone put you in there?" He had pulled out a pad of paper and was jotting things down. Allison began to fidget, never having been in trouble with the law before, and was terrified of the prospect happening now... all because of _him_.

She really, _really _wanted to kill Sunstreaker.

"Yeah, actually." Allison said with some hesitation, unsure of how to go further.

"Care to tell me who that was?"

"I... don't know..." She lied, trying to stall.

"You don't know?" The officer asked, and she could tell by look on his face that he was starting to get suspicious. This was not going as planned, feebly as it was.

"I... I was grabbed by someone and they threw me in and locked it. I didn't see their face." There was no way she could tell this officer the truth, and being no better at lying than she had been when Wheeljack's presence in Sealth had forced her to come up with all sorts of ridiculous excuses to people, she had nothing else to offer. Nothing had changed, except now she had Agent Fowler, who was possibly the only person now who could resolve this. She needed to get to a phone, fast, so she could call him and tell him what had happened.

"Alright, miss, uh...?"

"Allison."

"Alright Allison, you're telling me that someone locked you in that train and you didn't see who it was. Am I hearing that right?" He was gesturing pointedly to the train with his hand, as if he was trying to work out her story in his mind to see if it made sense. She swallowed, realizing that trying to lie about the Autobots when they kept getting her in trouble was proving to be difficult.

"Yes officer. Am I in Minneapolis? Because I was in Detroit when this all happened. Am I in trouble?" Allison asked, voice shaky from trying to restrain her nerves. She was feeling light-headed from being locked in such a dark, small enclosure for so long, the open air almost overwhelming to her senses now.

"Not yet. Not until we can figure out who put you in there and why," the officer said. "You're a long ways from home Allison. Why don't we take you back to the station and we can get this all sorted. If you have someone to call to help you sort this out we can see about that too," the officer said, nodding to the rail worker. "Alright Jeffrey. Thanks for calling this in." The worker nodded, then left. The officer turned back to Allison and led her with an outstretched arm to his patrol car, which was parked close to the train. The only thing that ran through Allison's mind was that it most certainly wasn't Prowl, and she found that she was just a little bit disappointed. She wondered if anyone—if Wheeljack—even knew that she was missing.

* * *

><p>Agent Fowler was straightening his tie for the 5th time that afternoon when his cell phone started to buzz inside his jacket pocket. He pulled it out, frowning at the unknown number trying to call him. Very few people had access to his personal number, and his particular cell was outfitted with spam filters and other software to prevent these kinds of calls. The only people who could were other law officers, and those select few he had given it to in case of emergency. Pressing the receive button, he took the call.<p>

"This is Agent William Fowler. Who is this?" he asked, gruffly.

"Agent Fowler?" The hesitant voice on the other end was a familiar one.

"Great Liberty Island! Allison? Why are you calling me? What's wrong?"

"It's a long story... but I'm in a bit of trouble..." Allison said, words trailing off as she was clearly holding something back.

"Trouble? What did you do? I told you that this number was for emergencies only." Fowler said, feeling a little bit irritated that this girl would see fit to bother him with whatever personal problem she had going on. Unfortunately, it was his job to listen, so he let her continue.

"But this_ is_ an emergency... I'm in Minneapolis right now, and I need some help. I'm in a police station and I-"

"What in heaven's name are you doing in a police station? Allison, I can't help you if you've broken the law, I'm a man _of_ the law. My hands are tied-"

"I didn't break the law, will you _listen_ to me please?" Allison interrupted him, voice high as the frustration in her voice became immediately apparent. "I'm not here by choice. Sunstreaker thought he'd be funny and lock me up in a train, but failed to realize that trains actually move. Ironic, I know. But here I am, and I need help getting out of here, because the police won't let me go unless someone can vouch for me." Allison said, taking a breath. "Look, I know this sounds crazy, but please believe me. Why would I run off to another state for no apparent reason? I don't even have a car, unless you count the one that's giving me the silent treatment right now."

Fowler calmed, straightening his tie one last time as he turned back to his desk. "You'll have to excuse me if I was a little cautious, Allison. I barely know you. For all I know, you could be some stray junkie that Wheeljack took pity on. For all I know, you could be one of those people who jaywalks for _fun_."

"Jaywalks? No! That's definitely not me at all, I swear. And I'm not a junky," Allison said defensively, with maybe even a note of sarcasm in her voice. There was a pause on the other end as he heard her sigh deeply. "Have they... have they contacted you? To ask you where I've been I mean."

"No, I'm sorry Allison. I haven't spoken to them since I saw you earlier today," Fowler said, realizing where this line of questioning was headed. "I will contact Prime and let him know that I've spoken to you."

"If he asks, I guess, tell Wheeljack I'm alive." Allison said darkly. Fowler couldn't help but roll his eyes at this, even though he did feel some sympathy for the kid. She had to have been scared. He was well aware of what Sunstreaker and Sideswipe called their hobbies, and how utterly frustrating it made his job when it included cleaning up after them. This was apparently going to be one of those times, and he wasn't looking forward to it. It looked like he'd be making a second trip to the Autobot compound that day, because he needed to make sure they were going to get their act together at such a crucial time.

"It's okay Allison, I'll make some calls, and send a car on over to pick you up. Uh... a normal car. I have an agent local that can come get you. There's been whispers of 'Con activity in the area but so far nothing concrete has come up." Fowler said, rifling through his ledger looking for the contact information of his agents. "I really don't want to risk anything at this point. Besides, the bots here seem to have their hands full getting ready to move out."

"Thanks Agent Fowler, I'm really sorry about this. Do you need a number or anything?"

"No need, I can get a direct line to the top. They'll get you out of there within 10 minutes. You're ride home is about an hour or two out, but you're best staying at the station for now, for safety's sake."

After saying their goodbyes, Fowler hung up and made the call, straightening his tie one last time. It always paid to have a straight tie.

* * *

><p>Sunstreaker waited until nightfall for the train yard to empty before driving slowly into the silent compound. It was devoid of human activity, allowing Sunstreaker to transform so he could better search for the particular train he was looking for. He remembered the markings well enough, but all he'd needed to do was follow the track line to where the particular train of interest had come to rest underneath a docking station.<p>

Following the cars, he slowly became aware that something was wrong as he followed them, looking for the particular one he had locked with Allison inside. They were all open, and as he reached the front end of the train without success, the first stirrings of panic began to make themselves known. Allison was gone.

Looking around, he convinced himself that perhaps he had found the wrong train. With a frustrated grunt he took to searching every visible car he could see for some sign of the human, but came up infuriatingly empty-handed.

This wasn't how Sunstreaker had expected things to go. In his mind, he'd envisioned himself arriving, immediately recognizing the train car, and finding the tiny pink insect inside, probably cowering in slack-jawed fear at the expansive world around her. She'd probably never even seen a train before, let alone been inside one. Sunstreaker bet she had leaked all sorts of lubricants inside. He snorted in irritation, walking back to the open gate.

The human metropolis sprawled out before him in the distance, and an idea struck him. He'd been going about it all wrong. He tuned into his internal radio, searching around until he found the right frequency that he was looking for. It was common knowledge that humans liked to talk. Always with the incessant chatter, the idle gossip about random daily bites of information that no one in their right minds should give a crap about.

It was also widely known that humans were incompetent at keeping secret intel to themselves. They literally sought out new ways to broadcast sensitive data to the general public, and this extended to their so called 'police force'. Somewhere on the airwaves, residential police were carelessly giving away every single bit of information that they knew to each other, ripe for the intercepting. It was a wonder the Decepticons hadn't taken down their entire network by now.

One snippet of conversation quickly caught his interest. A girl had been found stowed away in Mid-West Line #4 babbling about being locked in a train car. There was nothing particularly unusual about the story, meaning that Allison hadn't given him away, or tried to anyway. Not that anyone would have believed her, but he supposed she couldn't have been completely brainless if she'd managed to keep her mouth shut. She had been taken to the Central Police Station downtown for questioning.

"Found you," Sunstreaker muttered to himself, barely completing his transformation before his wheels hit the ground spinning.


	18. The Monsters in the Forest

**(c) Hasbro/Takara**

* * *

><p>Allison had already gotten sick of sitting down and had been pacing the holding room for some time when an officer finally let her out. Feeling relieved to finally be out of there, she walked out of the brightly-lit, overly sterile room to be met by a man in a dark suit flanked by two other officers. Just by appearance alone, he looked the part of government agent. He smiled at her when she walked forward, extending a hand in greeting.<p>

"Well you must be Allison, I'm Agent Combs," he said, grasping her hand warmly. His tone was warm, but there was a slight oddity to his voice.

"Hi. Did Agent Fowler tell you what happened?" Allison asked nervously, looking at the two officers in anticipation of them leaving. She was eager to get out of there, and most especially didn't want to keep skirting around the topic of alien robots around unprivileged ears.

The police station was too bright, and too busy, and part of her simply felt dirty just being there surrounded by all manner of unsavory characters; she knew with conviction that she didn't belong. After spending a good few hours locked up in a train, then another few hours locked up in a holding room in a police station, home was starting to sound very inviting. She had to figure at this point that the others knew she was gone, and she tried to picture what Wheeljack was doing at that very moment. He was probably still in the com room, watching the monitors, maybe stewing over what kind of lecture he was going to give her when she returned. At that point she didn't care. She missed him too much to be annoyed, and she was starting to feel uneasy being alone in a foreign city with none of her personal effects.

"Agent Fowler briefed me on the situation, yes." The agent said, pulling her around at the shoulder as he nodded to the two officers. "Let's get you out of here," he said with a smirk as he caught her confused gaze. It was surreal speaking with another human who knew what was going on as much, if not more than she did, and she couldn't help but marvel at the fact that she was part of such a huge secret.

"Thank you for getting me. I'm just glad to get out of there," Allison said, taking a deep breath as they neared the doors. The agent nodded, clearing his throat.

"You know, I kind of _wondered_ when something like this would happen. Some of those guys...I just don't know if we can trust them. Some of them have got a real nasty streak in them and—between you and me—I'd say stay away from them if you can help it." Agent Combs said, pulling the front door open for her to allow her passage. Nodding in thanks, Allison felt a rush of relief as the cool air hit her face. She hadn't realized how warm the police station had been until stepping outside onto the wet pavement.

"Well it isn't like I actively sought out spending time with him—well, maybe I was asking for it this time—but I'll take that under advisement," Allison said, not completely sure if she agreed with the agent's assessment of the Autobots, but his interaction with them would have been different. Although, she thought that one particular Autobot seemed to fit that observation pretty accurately. "Actually, I'd rather like to kill Sunstreaker right now. That is, if he doesn't kill me first." She added, joking. This caught the agent's attention and he stopped partway down the steps to look at her.

"Locking a human up in a train as a joke is one thing, but threatening one is another, and that's why we're here to make sure that doesn't happen. Something wrong Allison?" He had stopped at the behest of her dropped jaw as the topic of their conversation veered wildly around the corner down the street, skidding to a halt mere feet from the bottom of the steps outside the station all vengeance and rage. Rain water sprayed the pavement as the back-end of the yellow Lamborghini fishtailed coming to a halt, engine growling as it sat motionless at the curb. Sunstreaker was here.

Allison gaped, unable to believe her rotten luck, and for a moment a flash of anger ripped through her body as she watched Sunstreaker idle tensely at the curb. He was probably stalling, trying to work out how he was going to get to her with all the humans around, but she had no doubts that he was probably fuming. She could see it by the way his body vibrated, and while anyone else would have just seen a running car naturally moving, to her, it was clear that he was really struggling to hold himself back from smashing something.

The agent looked between her and the yellow Autobot with a frown, and reached for her as she tried to back up a step.

"He found me. How the hell did he find me?"

"Probably heard the police chatter. Don't worry about him, he'll stay away from us," Agent Combs said. His confidence puzzled Allison as she allowed him to pull her down the remaining steps to his own black sedan waiting at the curb. It was almost like he was talking about an animal at the zoo, and they were simply walking into its cage during feeding time. She wasn't quite sure if she agreed with the analogy, but Allison could almost feel the anger radiating off of Sunstreaker's body as he idled, imagining him transforming out of sheer annoyance at having to sit there in the rain. He certainly looked like he'd driven through a hurricane, covered in caked mud and debris, and she thought she spotted a few dents in his plating, minuscule as they were. Oh, he had to have been _pissed_. Inside her, a part of her felt slightly vindicated.

"How can you be sure he's not here to finish me off? I have this feeling...a bad one," Allison mumbled as she stumbled the last few steps to the car, unable to take her eyes off of Sunstreaker as she tried to work out what he was doing there. He had made it abundantly clear he'd tried to get rid of her, so she'd simply assumed he'd known the train would leave. It was an easy way to get rid of someone, right? So what was he doing, unless he'd panicked and realized that he couldn't let her live as a loose end...

It was then that she realized watching him sit there in car mode, clearly seething as his engine roared to life in warning, was far worse than she would have thought.

"Nonsense, he won't dare come close to us while I'm around. Now get in the car, please." The 'please' felt a little forced, like the agent was a little irritated by her worry, but was hiding it beneath his professional countenance. Allison found that she couldn't get into the car faster, feeling somehow safer sitting in the backseat. Agent Combs paused for a moment, looking at the rear-view mirror at the angry yellow car behind them. "Buckle up," he said, and Allison had the sense that they were going to be traveling fairly fast.

Allison settled back in her seat, not wanting to look behind her. She noticed the agent peering up into the mirror now and then, and felt the car immediately give a little jolt as it sped up each time. She didn't have to look back to know Sunstreaker must still be behind them.

"Persistent little devil," the agent muttered to himself. "What did you do to piss him off?"

"Nothing," Allison said sourly. "Well, I played with his brother a bit. Apparently he didn't like sharing the sandbox."

Agent Combs' brow furrowed. "That sounds a little a weird. I didn't know the Autobots _had _brothers, let alone sibling rivalry."

"Oh, they have it all right. At least _he _does."

"I used to fight with my brother a lot when I was a kid," the agent said trying to make idle conversation, possibly to get them thinking about something else other than the neurotic alien robot on their tail. "Can't say he ever locked me in a train," he added with a flourish as if it was a joke. Allison couldn't help but smile a bit at the absurdity of her ordeal, but part of her still felt a little bit offended. After all, Agent Combs hadn't spent the better part of the day locked up in a pitch-black smelly train car wondering if he was going to die.

"I think it's more deeply rooted than that. I get the impression Sunstreaker has identity issues."

"Sounds like an asshole," Agent Combs snorted. Behind them, a bright pair of headlights flared for a moment. Allison froze, wondering if maybe Sunstreaker had somehow overheard that comment.

"Maybe we shouldn't talk about him anymore," she suggested, feeling a little paranoid. As if on cue, the sound of an angry engine could be heard behind them, almost growling in response. It unnerved Allison, but she trusted the agent enough to endure the ride back home. She just hoped they were fast. So far Sunstreaker hadn't tried anything, but as they were getting further and further away from the city, and further into the middle of nowhere, she could imagine him getting negligent and doing something dangerous.

A few moments later that notion was pushed out of her mind as Allison risked another look back, only to see the yellow Autobot swerve off to the side, presumably onto a side road, and disappear.

"That's strange," Agent Combs murmured, clearly seeing it too. "I wonder where's he's off to?"

"You don't think he's trying to cut us off or something, do you?" Allison wondered faintly, feeling her heart rate speed up. This was really the last thing she saw herself doing for fun. The prospect of being chased by some human in a fit of road-rage was bad enough, but a Sunstreaker with rage period was astronomically worse. Considering that he was bigger, faster, stronger, _everything_ superior to two little humans only cemented her fear, and she could tell that Agent Combs was every bit as nervous as she was. Allison doubted that Sunstreaker was intimidated by Fowler at all, so the simple rank of the human she shared the car with probably meant next to nothing to him.

If all Sunstreaker was trying to do was retrieve her, after a fit of guilt or realizing he'd made a mistake, why had he made no attempt to actually communicate? That unnerved her, and implanted the nagging thought that something else was going on. Surely, Sunstreaker wasn't _that_ bad at socializing and thought that chasing her down was an acceptable way to make amends...

"I don't know, but I think we should probably drive a little faster." Agent Combs finally said. He was already driving over the legal limit, but he seemed determined to push the car even more now. The sides of the road were a blur to Allison, who shrank back in her seat. Going this speed in a vehicle that wasn't an Autobot worried the hell out of her. As much as she respected the agent's driving, she wasn't confident his reflexes would be quick enough to avoid driving into a ditch or off a cliff. The entire left side of the road was flanked by a deep ravine, filled with an ocean of trees, and driving off the side was a highly undesirable option.

Agent Combs had a determined look on his face, his features hard as his entire attention was focused on the road ahead of him, when suddenly it exploded into one of horror. "Hold on!" he shouted.

The agent spun the wheel hard, and Allison looked up just in time to see what looked like a large red tree in the middle of the road. In the few seconds they had before they struck it, Allison got the faint impression that the object was also actually moving towards _them_. It slammed into the side of the car, sending it spinning with a huge crash. The back of the car caved in on the passenger side, and a series of large, heavy thunks dented the roof inwards as the car slid sideways off the road with a horrifying shriek of metal. Allison tried to brace herself on the seat in front of her, but her head was forced into the side of the car painfully as it pitched sideways. She squeezed her eyes shut against the stars and the pain as she felt the car go weightless for what felt like an eternity.

Then the world around her fell, and it only took her a moment to realize that the car was tipping over on end as it fell off the side of the road into the ravine below. She was unable to move as everything turned upside down, her arms out of her control as they fell passed her head. Both the agent and Allison were tossed around like rag dolls as the car came to a lurching stop on its roof.

Glass and debris fell around her, hitting her face as she fought to control her breathing. Her entire body was stunned, locked into place by the seat belt, but her shoulders lacked the strength to pull her arms up to release her body from the straps. She hung there for a moment, dazed, before the pained groans from the agent near her brought her back to the present long enough for her brain to come to terms with what had happened. They'd hit something, something big, and the metal cage around her creaked as it continued to wobble in the aftermath of the fall.

There was a tremendous crunch outside, and suddenly Allison was startled enough to be brutally shoved back into the present, terrifying circumstances. Her eyes snapped open, her right side warm and throbbing in pain and she could feel her eye swelling where she'd hit the meagerly padded side of the car. Her arms spasmed as she fought to regain control, slowly pulling her arms to her waist as an involuntary whimper escaped her throat. Her only real coherent thought was that Sunstreaker had done this. He'd actually run them off the road, and judging by the crunch she'd heard outside, he was coming to make sure there were no survivors.

But red. She'd seen _red_...

She wasn't able to think further on this as she heard Agent Combs shift. He muttered something unintelligible, weakly fumbling with his own seat belt, and his body fell onto the roof of the car with a heavy _thunk_ as he freed himself. Allison was still too stunned to move, head swimming with terrifying, confused thoughts as she tried to fight with her own muscles to regain control. She hurt everywhere, and another weak groan escaped her as she heard the agent begin to speak to her.

"Are you... alright?" He coughed weakly. She managed to twist her head enough to see him, thankful that her neck was intact. He was holding onto his head, blood running down his face from an open gash on his temple. "Deep, even breaths..." he muttered, and it was only then that Allison realized she was panting in uneven gasps. The agent reached towards her waist slowly, and she only had a split second to realize what was happening and brace herself before her body was released from the turned over backseat. A heavily pained cry escaped her as she fell into a crumpled heap against the glass and tossed around debris on the roof. At least she could feel. That meant she wasn't paralyzed.

"That... asshole..." Allison managed weakly with a cough of her own as she finally got her lungs under control, and she pulled her body around to angle herself towards the front. Glass crunched underneath her as she moved, and she could feel the sharp pricks as they bit through her clothing and hit her skin. Agent Combs was still partially in the front seat, body twisted around to face her as he reached for her, breathing hard.

"I don't think that was our friend Sunstreaker..." he said breathlessly, but Allison barely heard the words come out of his mouth as her vision was pulled towards the driver's side window. What she saw—what she heard—made her body go numb, and for one wild moment she thought she was going to throw up. She could see red; red metal in the form of two long, slender armored legs walking towards the downed car with purpose. The car rattled with each heaving step, the alien sound of moving gears and shifting joints just audible over her own breathing as she managed to point a bleeding hand past the agent and out the window. This was _not_ Sunstreaker.

Whether Agent Combs had already seen, or managed to look back to see what she was pointing at she would never know. He was already trying to pull her into the front of the car where the window was shattered. She couldn't manage to get her body past the front seat, and she found herself instinctively shrink back as the pair of legs drew ever closer. Her own window was cracked, and she struggled to turn herself around and bring her legs forward. Her left knee shuddered in pain as she tried to dig her shoulders into the torn seat to press her weight against the window. She heard as much as saw the window crack split into a spidered pattern of weakened glass.

Just before she was about to bring her leg back and kick with her remaining strength, the powerful sensation of movement ripped through the car, and the agent who had been halfway out the window was forcefully dragged backwards by something large.

The car rocked violently, and with a haggard scream the agent was gone. Allison froze as she watched his body disappear above the car. She could hear him grunting with the effort of his own struggles, but she couldn't see him. He demanded to be put down, which elicited a throaty, amused laugh from the creature holding him. Fearful to go any further with her efforts to escape the car, she didn't want to draw attention to herself by making noise. Wounded as she was, she doubted she'd be able to get far, and her panicked mind was struggling to convince herself that staying in the car was a better option.

Eyes darting around for _something_, she caught sight of the agent's phone laying haphazardly past the front seat. Reaching forward, wincing as the glass beneath her crunched loudly amidst the struggling cries of Agent Combs outside, her fingertips brushed the edge of the phone. With a frustrated heave of air, she tried to slide her body forward, but found that she couldn't move when she heard the Decepticon speak, voice smooth and oddly seductive amidst the carnage.

"So sorry. You're not what I'm looking for." There was a terrifying, echoing crunch of bones snapping, and a devastating crash as Agent Combs' twitching body dropped back to the earth. The car rocked sideways and the phone slid out of her reach as his body collided with the side of the car on the way down, eyes wide and unseeing as Allison found that she couldn't help but stare back. Her scream was out of her control as she realized that his blood was on her, and the shifting of the legs outside were the last thing she truly processed before her baser instincts took control of what she was doing.

Heaving her body forward, she managed to snatch up the phone, and it danced in her grip for a split-second before she got a firm hold. The car rocked again, and she only saw at the corner of her field of vision massive fingers gripping the side of the car. with single-minded purpose she finally managed to kick her window out in a spray of glass as the body of the car was tilted on end. The car was lifted sideways and she tumbled out onto the wet ground, breath hitching in her throat as every bruise and ache of her body made itself known. She rolled to a stop at the base of an impression in the earth, and with a spinning head she managed to focus on what she was trying to run from.

A tall, slender Decepticon stood there, the car lifted onto its side as it peered in, and it was with a numb sense of horror that Allison instantly knew it was looking for her. The first thing she noticed was that this Decepticon was red, with darker grey pieces on its limbs and torso. Its shoulders were disproportionally broad with the rest of its chest, and the spiked plating that jutted out from past its collar had an angled elegance that reminded her of a bird.

Something cracked beneath Allison's hand as she tried to pull her body up to run, and the Decepticon's astonishingly bird-like face snapped in her direction, neck bowing down like a swan as a wane smile spread across the plates of its mouth. It was then that Allison realized exactly who she was looking at: She had seen that smile before, but it had been on a human face instead: a human wearing red who had vanished into thin air. This was the Decepticon hologram that had been sneaking around the Autobot base.

Allison didn't know how it was possible, but somehow, the Decepticons had known they were going to be there. This seemed too convenient to have been pure chance. It had to have been the phone call to Fowler. They'd been listening.

The car fell back down onto its roof as the Decepticon released its grip, glass shattering and metal bending as it was tossed aside with frightening indifference. It stepped forward and walked towards her with controlled, swaggering steps as something on its arm shifted, revealing what looked to be the thin, cylindrical tube much like the barrel of a rifle. Allison backed away on her hands, fingers dragging through dirt and dead leaves as it raised its arm at her and made aim. She turned to bolt, but found her body pushed back down onto the ground by a blast of hot air as an arrow of angry yellow sailed over her, landing with a thud between her and the Decepticon. Sunstreaker had returned.

"Well well, I see that Breakdown wasn't much of a challenge for you," the Decepticon purred. Allison could hear him step forward, but her vision was obscured by the tense form of Sunstreaker as he blocked her. He was pointing two pistols at the Decepticon, taking a heavy step backwards in her direction, a vision of tightly coiled hatred as every limb seemed poised to strike.

"Not even close," Sunstreaker snarled, and she could imagine the nasty expression of pure, burning loathing on his face as he kept his weapons forward on the Decepticon. "I wouldn't mind ripping _you_ apart, Knock Out; might be nice to beat up someone who can put up a decent fight. Oh, and this human? Off-limits." Allison saw Sunstreaker's head quickly tilt in her direction. "Whatever freakish ideas you have planned for her need to be scrapped, or _you_ will be."

At this point Allison wasn't quite sure what to do with herself. Until now, Sunstreaker had always appeared to want nothing more than to dispose of her, but here he was coming to her rescue and declaring that she was to be left alone. She doubted that his intentions were that pure, and she found herself unable to trust that she was any better off alone with him than she would be with Knock Out. She was torn between impulse and logic; fleeing from two possible dangers or staying and hoping Sunstreaker truly was here to save her.

Her decision was made for her as Sunstreaker suddenly sprung forward towards Knock Out. Allison heard a startled gasp as the Decepticon took the full brunt of Sunstreaker's attack. The two robotic bodies crashed into the trees, knocking branches and dead leaves loose as Sunstreaker managed to pummel the Decepticon with the handles of his own weapons. The heavy mass of bodies rolling around her finally kicked Allison's instincts into gear, and she turned to bolt the other way. It didn't matter if she trusted Sunstreaker or not; she was in danger of being crushed by their fight either way.

Right now, her priority was contacting Fowler. As she sprinted she fumbled with the salvaged phone, tapping the numbers frantically, trying to bring Fowler's number to memory quickly. In her hurry she mistyped twice, and had to stumble with the keypad to back up and start over, both hands quaking with adrenaline. She slipped down the slanted ground while she held the phone to her ear, stepping over small rocks and branches, steadying herself with her other hand. She was the mercy of the slow, droning dial-tone, mocking her plight until eventually the number got through, and Fowler's grumbling voice spoke over the other end.

"Agent Combs? You're earlier than I expected. Is everything OK-"

"He's dead!" Allison screamed out, words leaping out of her mouth before she could think them through. She could feel her voice shaking with the unsurpassed terror gripping her, and she almost tripped over another large root. She struggled to keep the phone against her ear as her foot slipped, and she fell forward, managing to catch herself against a log and pull herself back into a jarring sprint.

"Allison? What are you doing with Agent Combs' phone? And where is he?"

"He's dead!" Allison repeated, shouting even more loudly this time.

"Say again, Allison—Did you say he's _dead_? What's going on?" Fowler's voice shifted to one of startled shock as his voice raised, as if he was just now comprehending her repeated message.

"You have to help! I think they were listening to our phone call!" Allison knew she was babbling, but she was too focused on staying upright and keeping an eye on the space around her. She could still hear the sounds of battle. It almost seemed as if no matter how far she ran, the fighting was always right behind her. "There was a Decepticon! It killed him... and now Sunstreaker's back and they're fighting and-_argh!_"

Allison was thrown forwards as a giant clashing ball of red and yellow crashed next to her in a heap of screeching metal. Sunstreaker and Knock Out careened through the trees, causing Allison to slip and free fall down the slope, the phone flying from her hands. The world turned into a blur as she tumbled headfirst, bracken and leaves sticking to her as she rolled over them. A burst of pain shot up her spine as she crashed into a fallen, moss-covered log.

Allison's vision blurred, and she squinted as she lay on the ground, trying to focus through the stars that shot across her vision. Before her, the two Cybertronians were locked in combat, their features fuzzy and only their distinctive color schemes giving her a clue as to which was which. She fumbled around the ground, trying to find the cell phone she had dropped. She could hear what sounded like the muffled cries of Fowler, coming to her left. Following his voice, she eventually found it lying in a muddy pool of dead grass and rain water. She picked it up quickly, mud oozing down her arm as she yelled into the phone.

"I'm here!"

"Allison! What in the world is going on out there? Did you say there was a Decepticon?"

"Knock Out and Sunstreaker... They're fighting... tearing the woods apart... and—" As she yelled, Allison ran around a large tree, trying to get away from the savage brawl. Just mere inches from her something slammed into the ground, sending lightning jolts across the wet ground like the pulses of electricity. As Allison scuttled around it, she could see that she had just narrowly missed getting skewered by some kind of electrified prod, the other end firmly in Knock Out's grip as he struggled to keep Sunstreaker from snapping his neck. Even at a distance, Allison felt the slight burn of the electric static against her skin as the jets of electricity traveled across the wet conductive surfaces around her.

It was only as soon as she passed it that the recognition clicked in her brain, and she distinctly recalled the hologram version of Knock Out holding the same weapon when she'd been with Bumblebee in the woods. This version was a great deal bigger, and a great deal more terrifying.

Allison hurried around it, trying to put as much distance between her and the tangled snare of flailing robotic bodies as possible. She managed to stumble far enough away that the sounds of their fight became muffled, the reverberating clangs of metal limbs becoming further apart. She could almost trick herself into thinking things had calmed down, if not for the fact that her heart was about to burst out of her chest.

Allison kept running, trying to regain focus as her head cleared, just enough for her to accurately convey what she'd just experienced.

"It's the same one I saw before... His name is Knock Out. Sunstreaker was following our car and then he disappeared. Then this Decepticon came out of nowhere and ran us off the road... and he..." Allison paused, feeling her voice catch in her throat as the overwhelming urge to throw up overcame her, but she bit it down with watering eyes. She held back the urge to cry out of sheer revulsion and guilt. A man was dead because of her. "...He killed Agent Combs... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry he's dead, I don't know what—I didn't even know his name, I—"

"Where are you now?" Fowler interrupted. He was clearly trying to keep Allison's thoughts on track. His voice was steady, a very faint beacon of reassurance amidst the crisis.

"I'm-I'm not sure! We were maybe an hour out of town when we crashed..." Allison stopped for a moment, trying to see if there were any recognizable landmarks around her. She had stopped underneath what looked like a raised portion of the highway that was cutting through the trees. It was curved like a bridge, with thick, muddy water running along the ground underneath it. She splashed through, stopping as she emerged from the other side desperately needing to catch her breath. "There's a bridge... or something..." She threw her free hand up, frustrated at her inability to give Fowler any clear information that could help him. "I don't know where I am!"

"Don't worry about that. Listen Allison I need you to—" The rest of Fowler's sentence was lost as Allison felt something wrap around her mid-section and she was yanked bodily into the air. The sudden movement caused her to lose her grip on the phone, and there was no chance to scream as she watched the ground drop away from her.

"I _found_ you!" Knock Out's voice gave away the sheer joy he was having with the hunt. Allison couldn't even squirm, his grip was that tight, but as she looked up into his sleek-yet-malevolent features, she felt even more like a worm about to be engulfed by a crimson bird that had swooped down on its prey with frightening efficiency. As she felt herself rise up into the air, she felt a wave of exhaustion. The run had taken a lot out of her, and she knew that it had only been a matter of time before someone caught up with her.

"Put me down!" Allison managed to cry out, voice rough as she struggled to push enough air out to vocalize her demand. The smooth, angular face of the Decepticon she now knew as Knock Out erupted into an amused smile and he made a motion as if to stroke her hair, snickering softly with flickering eyes. His eyes were like bottomless pits of black with harsh rings of glowing crimson.

"Oh, I don't think I can do that. I wouldn't want you running away again, would I? It's really no fun at all chasing you through this wet, muddy terrain, and I'd rather not have to get my plating all _filthy_." He paused as she jerked away, trying to lean out of his reach and simultaneously pry his fingers from around her rib cage. Instead of touching her, however, Knock Out reached up to his shoulder, picking out small bits of grass and twigs from his joints. He sighed. "Some of this stuff takes _weeks_ to get out." Allison's terror halted for a brief moment, replaced by an almost bewildered sense of displacement. Here she was, in the clutches of a vile Decepticon, and he was suddenly preoccupied by his _appearance_. That somehow seemed woefully familiar.

"You...you look good, really," Allison tried, though she instantly wondered if she was going down the wrong path. Instead of getting angry, however, the Decepticon gave out a hearty chuckle.

"Flattery will get you _everywhere_, Allison. Though in this particular case, that isn't very far. This is a very short road you're traveling, I'm afraid." Knock Out gave her a little shake, causing her to gasp as her head was thrown forward. She barely registered the fact that Knock Out knew her name. "Now hold still, this will only hurt for a moment."

"How merciful..." Allison said through gritted teeth, mustering defiance.

"I didn't say it wouldn't be agonizing," Knock Out sneered, voice shifting to a harsher, sadistic tone as he brought his other arm near her face. She struggled to lean out of his reach, managing to pry her other arm loose soon enough to reach out and push away the cylindrical barrel that was coming towards her. As she managed to slip out of its range time and again, she only saw the faintest impression of the end being pointed—like a needle—and with a jolt of pure terror she realized he meant to inject her with something. Her control of her motor functions left her as the only impulse that came over her body was the desperate need to _keep the pointy thing away from her skin_. For something so large, the needle was incredibly thin and delicate, and hideously long.

"No! Get that thing away from me!"

"Stop squirming," Knock Out huffed, as if only mildly perturbed. The needle came very close to the base of Allison's neck and she could feel the magnetic heat of the tip against her skin. She'd lost the struggle, her arms eventually becoming pinned underneath the Decepticon's fingers and his strength overwhelmed her own. Allison closed her eyes tight, a slight whimper leaving her lips as she awaited what was to come next.

A moment passed without anything happening. Allison didn't want to risk opening her eyes in case Knock Out was sadistically waiting for her to do exactly that before jabbing the needle in, but when he didn't budge, she slowly peeked with one eye. When she did so, she realized he was looking beyond her, as if he had shifted his attention to something behind her. "Well, well, it seems you have a fan."

Allison could only turn her neck around just enough to see the now-familiar flash of yellow as it came at them alarmingly fast. Knock Out cocked his head to the side in interest, unmoving. For a moment Allison was afraid that he was simply going to let Sunstreaker plow into the two of them, and she severely doubted that she would survive. It did not come to pass, however, as she saw a flash of sudden panic in Sunstreaker's eyes as he saw her, and he skidded to a stop. Almost simultaneously he extracted one of his sidearms from a hip compartment and took aim directly at the Decepticon's smug, smiling face.

"I said that human was off limits," Sunstreaker growled, and Allison did not think she had ever seen such a pressing desire to inflict violence; not even on Wheeljack when he'd had Starscream completely flat on the ground and incapacitated. "Apparently you don't hear very well."

"Well? What are you waiting for, Autobot? She's right here." Knock Out waved Allison around in front of him. The movements were tiny to him, but to Allison the force of being waved around was incredibly jarring and she was powerless to resist. The situation was too familiar, and Allison couldn't help but remember her altercation with Starscream. The Decepticon had behaved the same way, taunting Wheeljack with her helplessness before he'd shot her. The Decepticons were, if anything, consistent with their desire to flaunt their trophies.

Knock Out continued to goad Sunstreaker. "If you really want her, why don't you come and get her?"

"A-are you kidding me..." Allison wheezed, unaware of what was coming out of her mouth. "This guy h-hates me..."

"Could have fooled me," Knock Out said, amused. "He put up quite a fight just to get to you."

Sunstreaker maintained his steady aim, pointing squarely between the Decepticon's eyes. "I planned on shooting you first," he said. "I thought that would be far more fun."

Knock Out chuckled, as if Sunstreaker had just told a joke. "Oh, but what if you miss?" He feigned a look of worry. "What a shame it would be if your aim was just ever so slightly off and took off her pretty little head. Or maybe I might move at the last second."

"My shots never miss," Sunstreaker said.

Allison found herself getting irritated with the back-and-forth regarding her fate. Having one's fate discussed wasn't exactly an easy thing to endure, and it was clear that Sunstreaker was putting bravado before her safety. She found herself shouting out, "Just shoot him already!"

To her surprise, as well as Knock Out's, Sunstreaker fired. His hand shifted the slightest bit to the right and he pulled the trigger before Knock Out could even register a reaction. The blast hit Knock Out in the wrist that was holding Allison, the heat of the exchange was so close to her that her face and arms burned at the contact.

She felt Knock Out's grip release immediately, and Allison's stomach plummeted as she felt the immediate control of gravity take over. Both of them shouted out at the same time; Knock Out as he held his wounded wrist, and Allison as she fell to the ground. Enraged, Knock Out immediately lifted his other arm which had shifted into some kind of blaster weapon, but Sunstreaker had already vaulted from his position.

Allison's fall was broken by something hard before she slammed into the ground, the jolt against her body so painful that it knocked the breath from her lungs. Stunned, she caught the briefest flash of the searing white of Sunstreaker's eyes as she rolled onto the ground. Out of breath and entire side in agony where she'd literally bounced against Sunstreaker's palm. She managed to bite back the pain long enough to right herself, only to be mere inches from Sunstreaker's face as he scrambled towards her, and instinctively she scooted away in the opposite direction away from him.

Undeterred, Sunstreaker made a grab for her, and Allison squirmed out of his reach and managed to get to her feet. There was an angry snarl from the Autobot as he jumped after her, doubling over as he clutched his waist, reaching out for her simultaneously.

"You're not supposed to run from me you little-" Sunstreaker made another attempt to catch her, which she only saw as she risked a look back, just in time to see Knock Out swing around and grab Sunstreaker by the outstretched arm. With a heavy cry of anger, Sunstreaker was pushed to the ground, caught off guard with his attention focused solely on catching her. Allison felt a flash of guilt that almost made her stop, and she slowed with hesitation just long enough for Sunstreaker to turn back to her as he lay on the ground. Knock Out was finishing examining his damaged hand, standing over the downed Autobot with an expression of pure, sadistic hatred.

"Maintaining a healthy finish in this environment isn't easy, Autobot," Knock Out vented, sounding extremely unpleasant. "Now the gloves come off!" He reached behind him, pulling out what looked like the same electrified prod she'd nearly run into before: the last thing Allison saw before she risked a panicked glance at the Autobot on the ground. Sunstreaker was looking directly at her, expression curiously enough not one of snarling anger or vehement dislike, but she thought she saw the faintest impression of panic in his eyes.

"Don't run towards me _now_! Get out of here!"

Allison opted to go with her initial instinct and to keep running, her hopes sinking as she bounded back into the dense forest, pushing past tree after tree. She tried to block out the sounds of whatever was happening behind her, not wanting to hear what it sounded like for Sunstreaker to come to a messy end. No matter what he'd done... she couldn't bring herself to believe that he deserved that, no matter how much he hated her. Instead she tried to focus on the trees around her, trying to keep her mind focused and in control as she ran back the way she had initially come.

The only real plan that immediately came to mind was to loop around then follow the road back the way her and Agent Combs had initially come. If she could make it back into Minneapolis, she could get to a phone and get back in touch with Fowler, and hopefully the other Autobots. She didn't know if she'd be in time to save Sunstreaker, and Allison found herself worrying for his safety. It was a new experience for her, but one she didn't have long to think about.

After a few breathless minutes, she passed the downed car, her eyes instantly following the battered body of Agent Combs as she ran through the clearing. Sudden revulsion struck her as the guilt passed over her again, and she slowed long enough to stumble to a stop. It turned out to be a fortunate decision. If she hadn't stopped, she would have never seen the hulking blue and black figure rise up from behind the wreckage of the car. She immediately recognized the shape of the body, the vacant expressionless face and single visor-like eye. It was Soundwave.

"How many of you _are_ there?" Allison cried audibly, unable to stop herself from venting her frustration. Having only seen Soundwave a few times, it hadn't taken her more than a moment to remember what she was seeing as his passive mono-eyed stare found her in the middle of the battered clearing. There was something different about him from how she remembered him, he seemed more slender. But she recognized the single ocular visor and the distinct shapes on his body, and the familiar blue plating. Mostly, she remembered the deep intent to kill that radiated from him.

Allison's instincts finally kicked in, as she turned to run around the lurking Decepticon. She knew it was stupid idea, but with a murderous butcher behind her and a silent assassin blocking any real exit, she had no choice. She made it about six feet before Soundwave's body took a gigantic step to the side, his foot coming down with a thunderous crunch, making it clear he wasn't going to let her leave. It was with a sickening lurch in her stomach that she decided that there likely had been no hope of escape since the very moment Knock Out had totaled the car.

But Soundwave didn't move after that, and Allison felt a moment of confusion as she stepped back. "Well?" Allison shouted, surprised that she sounded more angry than scared. Soundwave, silent and charismatic as she remembered him, only responded with a subtle tilt of his head in her direction; clearly hearing her, but not caring enough to respond. "What are you waiting for?"

Soundwave's gaze shifted just slightly, and she realized too late that he was looking behind her as she felt something sharp bite into the nape of her neck. Allison didn't immediately process what had just happened, a burst of air slightly brushing against her skin as the pain subsided to nothingness.

Confused, and thinking it weird that of all times a bug would bite her _now_, she reached back to feel her skin. Her fingers touched against something thin, cold, and distinctly metal. Something had stabbed her. There was another odd tingle, and she could feel the metal suddenly pull out of her neck with an audible _shink_, an electrifying burst of pain radiating down her spine as it passed out of her skin. Her fingers at the back of her neck closed on thin air as she slowly pulled her hand back around, and was puzzled to find no blood on her fingers.

For one terrifying second she felt violently ill, the sensation shooting through her body like a tremor before passing into sudden, almost calming numbness. Her limbs began to feel unnaturally heavy as it became too difficult to hold her arm up, and it went slack at her side as her head nodded forward. Her mind was amazingly, almost alarmingly, clear, but her chest began to tighten as breathing became labored. It felt as if her muscles were beginning to seize, and soon enough her legs began to tremble underneath the weight of her body. She wasn't falling asleep. She simply couldn't feel her body as paralysis took hold, and all she could feel was unsurpassed terror as she slumped to the ground, her body turning enough for her to clearly see how fascinated Knock Out looked as he watched her fall.

It was one thing to be rendered completely unconscious before death. It was quite another to be rendered simply incapacitated, but completely conscious and aware of what was going on, only to be unable to fight off whatever was coming next. Allison could see and hear everything happening around her. Her limbs refused to respond to her desperate attempts to move them. The shocking jolts of fear were acutely felt as time and again she was unsuccessful at getting any sort of physical response. All she could do was stare up in horror, the slow rise and fall of her chest the only thing she could control, as the Decepticons congregated around her. Stripped of any defense, her thoughts were muddied as she languidly tried to grasp her situation. Despite her hatred of the Autobot, she found herself wondering what had become of Sunstreaker.

Knock Out had retracted that long, terrifying needle back into his arm when, as if arriving to answer Allison's question, the trees nearby parted and a battered, limping Sunstreaker lurched out of the trees and into the clearing. He stood between Allison and Knock Out, his eyes wide.

"Allison? What have they-"

Sunstreaker's eyes went alight with shock as a spear-like object flew into his chest, rupturing his plating. His mouth slackened, and he looked down at the projectile that had embedded itself into him. Allison was able to follow the thin, sinewy cable to its source with the limited movement her eyes allowed. Still next to the wreckage of the car, Soundwave was standing upright; a mechanical tendril rose out from behind him, snaking around him. It was this tentacle that had Sunstreaker rooted to the spot like a harpooned whale.

Suddenly, it came alive with blue energy, and Sunstreaker screamed in horrific pain as he struggled to yank the offending object free of his body which only seemed to bury the claw-like end deeper into his chest as he swayed violently, finally dropping to his knees as thrashing proved useless.

The lightning pulses of energy continued to assault Sunstreaker time and again, and Allison couldn't help but feel astonished at the Autobot's stubborn refusal to go down. With an agonizing cry, Sunstreaker violently ripped out the claw-like harpoon. It writhed around inside his hands like it was alive, and he gripped it fiercely. His hands struggled with it for a moment, before crushing and twisting it clean off of the main tendril. There was what sounded like a garbled emission of noise from Soundwave, and the Decepticon's head jerked back. With a violent flail, the snake-like tendril from the harpoon retracted violently through the air before disappearing somewhere within Soundwave's body.

Sunstreaker swayed on his knees for a moment, the pronged end of the tentacle still in his hand. With a weak flail of his arm, he tossed the severed harpoon head to the ground. There was one small shudder from Sunstreaker as he fell forward to the ground a few feet away from Allison, the weight of his body felt as the ground beneath her shuddered underneath his slackened fall.

Sunstreaker's eyes were closed. The lights on his body faded as he passed out, and with them disappeared Allison's hopes of getting out of this alive.


	19. The Call

**Happy belated Valentine's Day! :p **

**I had a couple questions about what Knock Out did to Allison, and if it would come into play later. For clarification, it was just meant to be a simple paralytic drug, and as far as it being something important I don't have any current plans for it to become a plot point later on. For now, it was meant to be a means to immobilize Knock Out's victims given that he's a creepy S.O.B. Also, he's more or less based on his TF: Prime counterpart but I****'ve made some slight changes to make him a bit more unhinged.**

**(c) Hasbro/Takara  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Agent William Fowler had always thought of himself as a very calm, collected man. He was not easily rattled, and was known for keeping a cool head even in the most stressful of situations. During his short stint as a field soldier, he had always been looked to as a beacon of stability, often times when the real commanding officers had cracked under the pressure or had simply lost their focus. His personal motto was a testament to his perseverance; when the horse beneath you falls down, you pick up the horse and carry it to victory.<p>

This was why he had been entrusted with the sensitive job of playing alien ambassador; being called to the Pentagon and taken off the field to forever serve as the human back-bone for the Autobot operations on Earth. Even when the Autobots had infuriatingly disobeyed protocol, completely ignoring even the simplest of requests to keep things clean, Fowler found that he had not once lost control. Today marked the first time that solid composure was stretched beyond its breaking point.

The first symptoms were subtle, and weren't instantly apparent. He didn't flail his limbs or start shouting at people for small mistakes. It started with his appearance. He found himself messing with his tie at first. This itself wasn't unusual, except for the fact that he only seemed to be making it look worse. It was a way to give his hands something to do to keep his mind off of the giant catastrophe he now faced, but it wasn't enough to contain his anger. As he walked into the now very empty Autobot base, he found his pace quickening, his footsteps loudly echoing down the hall as he rushed on his way.

He had _tolerated_ it when the Sumdac girl had gotten involved, though the fact that she was a Sumdac meant that his hands were tied on the matter regardless of his opinion. Besides, she'd mainly stuck around the base, being glued at the hip to the yellow Autobot Bumblebee. He'd come to trust that the Autobot would protect the girl with his life, and that was really the most important piece of the equation. He would never understand even the fundamental basics of what it meant for an Autobot to be bonded to another, but he was able to sleep at night knowing that the child would be kept out of harms way. Perhaps he'd gotten too relaxed.

Allison, so far, had been nothing but trouble. The destruction in Sealth was a testament to the dangers posed by adding more humans to the Autobot family, and the fact that Sari was now getting physically involved only proved this to Fowler. To make matters worse, Allison was now also attached to an Autobot of her own, which would have been tolerable were it not for the fact that he was a giant, metal _maniac_. Wheeljack unashamedly marveled in wanton destruction for the sake of scientific discovery and the thrill of being on the brink of danger. When Fowler had learned that Optimus Prime had sent Wheeljack to deal with the Arkeville mess in Sealth City, he'd honestly believed that the Autobot leader truly meant to give him a heart attack and kill him.

While he knew that the scientist was brilliant, and invaluable to the Autobots on a technical—if not work-safety conscious—level, things around him tended to explode or fail so fantastically that sometimes Fowler wondered if Wheeljack did it on purpose just to see what would happen. This didn't make any of the events that had occurred in Sealth Wheeljack's fault, but there had still been plenty of tax dollars spent repairing the damage of his passing. That had been weeks of paperwork, with probably months more to come.

It was also clearly not Allison's intent to create chaos, nor was she the cause for it. It could have been any human that caught Sunstreaker on a bad day. It could even have happened to Sari. But at the end of the day, this was the second time that Allison had gotten herself caught up in danger, and it would not have happened had she and Wheeljack not bonded. It hadn't been something Fowler had been enthusiastic about, but he had chosen to tolerate it rather than fight it. As much as he liked to pretend that he was in control, there were many occasions where he felt like a single parent stuck with a house full of teenagers, all of them testing their boundaries with him every chance they got. It was getting harder and harder to keep them a secret, as every passing month seemed to bring more danger, and Decepticons closer to blowing down their doors.

To make matters worse, he'd come to the unfortunate conclusion that the twins, another pair that had caused him more than his fair share of grief, had now proven that they were more than just a couple of idiotic pranksters. When Fowler had gotten the first phone call from Allison about Sunstreaker sending her on an unexpected jaunt across the country, he'd at first thought she was joking. But he'd quickly come to the conclusion after a few phone calls that things were more serious than he'd previously thought. Gluing things to walls, knocking out power lines, blowing up trash cans full of firecrackers and being a general collective pain in the ass was one thing. Locking up a human—a tax-paying citizen that _he_ had to protect above all else—inside a dark, empty train car and sending her off with no way to fend for herself was entirely another. It was unforgivable.

At first he'd been reminded of Allison's inability to keep things in control and had even been upset with her for a time. But the second, more urgent call made him realize that things were now beyond an annoyance and into the realm of disturbing. He needed Optimus Prime, and he needed the Autobot leader _now._

As Fowler strode into the much emptier Autobot base, he instantly set his sights on finding Optimus. The Autobot leader needed to hear this in person. Unfortunately, the first being he ran into was the exact Autobot he was hoping to avoid.

"Agent Fowler?" Wheeljack was emerging from the room he called his laboratory, a massive crate in his arms as he looked down at the human. "What are you doing here? I thought we weren't going to see you until we arrived in Nevada." Fowler noticed with some sympathy that Wheeljack looked a great deal shakier than he usually did. Considering that the box was likely full of volatile explosives, this unnerved Fowler. But it was Wheeljack's unease itself that unnerved Fowler even more. Wheeljack was many things, but he was not one of the Autobots who was easily shaken. That must have meant he knew about what Sunstreaker had done, but Fowler had a fair impression that he was unaware of what had happened next. The fact that the box was still in one piece made this particularly clear.

"No time, Wheeljack. I need to talk to Prime," Fowler said, waving the Autobot off. It would do no good to tell Wheeljack first. Since this involved Allison, he would let Optimus Prime break the news to his own scientist directly. Besides, Fowler had no intention of being on the receiving end of what would happen if Wheeljack went truly berserk. He'd heard the stories from Sealth, of what had happened when Starscream had tried to take Allison out: how Wheeljack had lost control and acted unexpectedly violent. Fowler simply had no time for drama, because Allison's life, and Sunstreaker's life was now at stake. "Where is he?"

"He's down in the brig," Wheeljack said distantly, and Fowler could tell that the Autobot was eying him warily. "I can take you down there. I was heading back to the com room anyway..."

Fowler got the sense that Wheeljack was trying to read him for information, as if he could somehow glean any news as to what was happening with Allison and Sunstreaker from Fowler's focused pupils. Fowler shook it off, and instead tried to remain neutral as he resisted the urge to mess with his tie again. The action was becoming a nervous twitch.

Taking a deep breath, he admitted to himself that he _was_ scared. He'd seen plenty of destruction and death in his lifetime, but something about Allison's phone call was still heavy on his mind, and it shook him to the core. Allison was not a solider, so hearing the fear in her voice, only to have the call lost to sudden silence then completely dropped, was stirring an anger in him that was hard to ignore. It wasn't even so much as Allison herself as it was the fact that an Autobot had betrayed a human. This was going to be a very hard act to talk down to the powers that be.

The walk to the brig was quick, but silent as Wheeljack must not have known what to say to him, possibly sensing Fowler's lack of desire for idle chit-chat. That was just as well, because Fowler had only one purpose in mind, and that purpose was emerging from the depths of the brig below the main compound.

"Optimus..." Wheeljack's voice came from behind Fowler, who turned in time to see the Autobot leader stop in mid-stride. The security officer, Prowl, was close on Prime's heels. When Optimus looked down and saw the human there, a faint look of guilt passed over his eyes as the plating of his brow tightened. "Fowler is here... _again_." The note of disdain in Wheeljack's voice did not go unnoticed. At that current point, Fowler couldn't find it in himself to blame the Autobot.

Optimus cleared his throat. "Agent Fowler, I'm surprised that you-"

"I'm not here for a chat, Prime. _We _need to talk," Fowler said, pointing between himself and the Autobot leader. "In _private_." He added, hoping to drive the point that Wheeljack was not to be privy to this conversation. It was pointless to assume that Prowl would not be present, as any matter that involved security usually meant that Prime would refuse to count him out.

Optimus Prime merely glanced up at Wheeljack, and Fowler heard the Autobot shift behind him with a frustrated huff.

"I'll be in the com room..." Wheeljack said, and he turned to leave. Optimus Prime watched his Autobot walk away, and as soon as Wheeljack disappeared into the com room he looked back down at Fowler.

"We were just about to leave, Agent Fowler. To what do we owe the honor of your presence?" Optimus Prime's voice was level, and typically gracious, but this was how he always was. Even the toughest of times it was difficult to gauge from Optimus any hint of how aware he was of certain information. Likely, he always knew everything, but he gave away nothing. This was one of those times.

"I'll cut to the chase, Prime. I'd like to know why you thought it might not be pertinent to inform me of a certain situation, namely, one of your Autobot soldiers kidnapping and locking up one of my civilians inside a train. _Without_ authorization I might add," Fowler said, taking a deep breath. "Yeah, I know all about that. Allison was picked up by police in Minneapolis, and she contacted me. I took care of that," Fowler added quickly, waving away the slightly guilty look on not only Optimus' face, but on Prowl's as well. Their collective surprise melted into relief at hearing the news that Fowler had spoken to the girl, though Fowler expected this relief to be short-lived. "Unfortunately, I'm sorry to say, things have only gotten worse."

Optimus Prime paused, looking between him and Prowl fearfully. Fowler could see the hesitation in Optimus' eyes as he shifted uncomfortably.

"Please continue," came the Autobot's succinct reply.

"I sent an agent to pick her up, but they were intercepted on the road by 'Cons. Knock Out, to be specific. They were probably monitoring the city's communications, checking the police chatter, or maybe they knew that Allison had been put on that train and was heading that way. I don't know, but my agent is dead, either way."

"And Allison?" Prime asked. Fowler had waited a moment before relaying Allison's fate, carefully monitoring the expressions on the two Autobots. The two were stoic, like golems, though Prowl displayed the barest hint of a twitch as a cable on his neck shifted slightly. Prime, however, was a rock.

"Allison's alive," Fowler added finally. "At least...she _was_ alive when she managed to contact me with Agent Combs' phone. It sounded like she was being chased, but unfortunately she didn't know where they were except that they had crashed about an hour outside of Minneapolis. She mentioned that Sunstreaker was there with her, and that there was fighting going on. I lost contact with her when I think she lost the phone... and I _think_..." It wasn't often that Fowler was at a loss for words, but he found that even he couldn't quite come to terms with what he was about to say. "I'm sorry Prime, but I think they took her. She was talking, and then suddenly she wasn't, and that was it. As for your Autobot, I really don't know."

Optimus Prime was silent for a moment, eyes narrowed gravely as he appeared to contemplate what he was about to say. Prowl next to him actually looked stunned, and it was about as close to emoting as the Autobot had ever come.

"I understand..." Prime said, bringing a hand to his head as if to hold it in exhaustive shame. The infuriatingly simple remark left Fowler breathless with anger.

"I should hope you do understand. This would have never happened if you knew how to deal with your own men, Prime. Letting those two delinquents loose to do God knows what on this planet... I'm starting to get tired of cleaning up their messes time and time again. And now they've gone _too_ far." Fowler said pointedly, feeling his pulse race and his face redden in anger. Prowl's own expression neutralized as he looked down at him.

"Correction, Agent Fowler: Sideswipe had _nothing _to do with this. This was all Sunstreaker's doing."

"Prowl is correct," Prime finally spoke up, voice quiet. "Though it doesn't change the fact that Fowler is also right. I am responsible for my own men. They have acted because I have allowed them to do so. I should have been more firm with them."

"I assume appropriate action has been taken out?" Fowler demanded.

"We decided that would be best waiting until the matter is resolved. Bumblebee and Sideswipe are currently en route to the train's last position as we speak. However... this latest development must be relayed to them."

"You call a dead agent and a missing young woman a development?" Fowler confirmed, feeling his patience strain. "I don't know what you plan to do about this Prime, but you better act fast. If by some miracle Allison is still alive, and you better pray to whatever you call a God that she is, I expect your full support on this." Fowler found himself calming, reminding himself that this was not going to be about his own frustrations with his current lot in life, but this was now about Allison and Sunstreaker. "I've already dealt with enough death. I don't want to add to that body count," Fowler added, voice softening as he looked down. He couldn't resist the urge to fuss with his tie again, finding this admission hard to cope with.

"Neither do I, Agent Fowler. You will not be doing this alone."

"Good," Fowler said, nodding. "I've already had a team triangulate the last known location of Agent Combs' cell phone where I lost the call with Allison. That will give us an idea as to where it started, and maybe where they ended up. If Bumblebee and Sideswipe are already on their way, you can send those coordinates their way." Fowler said heavily, bowing his head as he placed his hands against his waist. "It's too late for Agent Combs' family, but I truly hope for Wheeljack's sake that there is still time to save Allison."

"As do I," Optimus Prime said, sighing deeply. "We must assume that Sunstreaker was taken with them and we must move quickly. There is a great deal at stake here for us," he added with a sad rumble, turning to Prowl. "I need you to get Ratchet and Arcee. Tell them what has happened. Contact Bumblebee and Sideswipe and make sure they know where to look. As for me..." Optimus Prime said, shoulders heavy as his eyes darkened. "_I_ will tell Wheeljack."

"Yes Prime," Prowl said, and Fowler noted the wavering of the normally stoic Autobot's voice. He'd never seen them affected so acutely by human troubles before, and while they had always cared, it had never actually been personal. There was an emotional investment in this particular human, and losing one of their own in Sunstreaker when they were so few left was nothing short of devastating. Their absence was going to affect Wheeljack and Sideswipe in ways that Fowler would never understand, but he couldn't help but feel a heavy sadness at this, and how it affected their entire team as a result. They were many things: frustrating, insubordinate, and reckless on multiple levels, but they were a family, and they cared for their own.

After giving Prowl the coordinates they had on hand, they had made the trek to the infirmary where they would find Ratchet and the female Autobot named Arcee. Optimus Prime had bid them farewell before entering the com room, and Fowler did not envy him.

* * *

><p>Bumblebee and Sideswipe had been following the railway tracks all the way to Minneapolis, where the train had finally come to rest in a train yard. In the middle of the night, there would be no humans around, so the risk of being seen was minimal. Sideswipe entered the clearing first and transformed, looking around with a look of someone who was greatly lost.<p>

"Which one do you think it was?" Sideswipe asked, voice heavy with frustration, and what Bumblebee reckoned was a heavy serving of guilt. Sideswipe had been uncharacteristically quiet during the entire trip, and Bumblebee knew that he was feeling the weight of his brother's absence, and what he had done. His run-in with Wheeljack was probably on his mind as well. Bumblebee hadn't seen it, but it wasn't hard to accurately guess how things had gone down after overhearing Ratchet and Arcee discuss it when they thought he wasn't listening.

Bumblebee had to wait to transform, needing to allow his human passenger to exit before doing so. He didn't know how Sari did it, but she had managed to talk him into taking her along with them. Since this didn't involve any Decepticons, he figured there was no real danger, but had still been hesitant to disobey Prime's request to take her home. Admittedly, he was also feeling very confused, and a little bit betrayed by what Sunstreaker had done, so it probably hadn't taken too much effort from Sari to get him to comply. A large part of him had needed her company. Besides, the girl was very persuasive when she wanted to be.

As soon as Sari jumped out, dusting off her legs as she ran further out into the opening of the clearing, Bumblebee transformed and joined Sideswipe in his search. Shrugging, he really had no idea which train they should be looking for, but just by initial sight alone he could tell that Sunstreaker was nowhere to be found. The yard had a few industrial lights on that illuminated some of the area, but Bumblebee activated his own personal spotting lights to aid him in his search. Sideswipe did the same a moment later.

"Maybe Sunstreaker was already here and took her home?" Bumblebee offered, wondering if he should place a hand on his friend's shoulder for encouragement, but Sideswipe looked to be thoroughly put off as he walked towards one of the empty cars.

"He's still not answering my hails," Sideswipe said with some frustration. He peered into the lone, open train car resting off the tracks if only to give himself something to do. Coming to a stand, the relative silence of the night was shattered when Sideswipe suddenly forced his fist into the dented metal of the train car, punching a ragged hole through the sheet metal. Bumblebee felt his wings jolt in panic at Sideswipe's venting on the inanimate object, and he hissed at his friend to stay quiet as the pressing concern of being found was now paramount.

"'Sides, I know you're upset, but we gotta-"

"Bumblebee! Come here! I think I found something!" The voice was Sari's. Bumblebee and Sideswipe shared a quick glance, then ran over to where Sari was crouched next to a train car. She was peering under the car, and when she saw the two Autobots approach she motioned for Bumblebee to shine his light for her. He complied, and almost jolted back in surprise when a couple pairs of eyes stared back at him.

"Sari... what are those?" He pointed his lights directly at the object of Sari's interest. The girl immediately frowned, disappointed.

"Oh. It's just a family of raccoons. I guess their nest is in there."

Sideswipe huffed. "Don't you think if it was Allison, she would have said something?" Sari shot him an annoyed glare.

"I'm just trying to help."

"Also, those look nothing like Allison's eyes."

Sari glared back. "There's no need to rub it in."

"Yeah, well you shouldn't even be here. It's too dangerous..." Sideswipe vented heavily, turning away to continue his search. Bumblebee wasn't sure if Sideswipe was referring to the possibility of running into 'Cons or his brother.

"Okay, arguing about this isn't going to help. We need to find them," Bumblebee said with raised hands to instill peace.

"Well where do you propose we start? There's nothing here!" Sideswipe said, spinning around with a sweeping motion of his arms. "My brother is shutting me out, so that isn't going to help. For some reason _you_ have Allison's cell phone, so that means we have no way of tracking them down."

Bumblebee pointed at his eyes with his fingers. "Then we'll just have to do it the old fashioned way: with our optics. We'll do a thorough sweep." He tried to keep his voice even, if only to keep an argument from brewing. Tensions were high enough as it was between the two brothers, let alone the rest of the group. "We need to check these cars and make sure she's not still locked up in one of them," Bumblebee said, taking the lead and getting a start on the nearest train inside the docking bay.

"I'll stay with Bumblebee," Sari offered, staying close to the yellow Autobot's leg as she eyed Sideswipe with some hesitation. Bumblebee rumbled a pleased affirmative as she touched the bottom portion of his leg with a small hand. Better she was near him than Sideswipe, who looked like he might snap at any moment. "At least he won't yell at me if I see a raccoon."

"Fine," Sideswipe mumbled, walking off around the back of an old yard building. "Maybe you won't get in the way."

Bumblebee sighed. "Sunstreaker's usually the grumpy one."

"It's okay," Sari shrugged, speaking quietly. "I know he doesn't mean it."

They set to work on poking around the different train cars, each one as empty and Allison-less as the next one. They hadn't been searching long before Bumblebee felt the prickling sensation of someone hailing his internal com frequency; the signature belonging to that of Prowl. Concerned, he answered the hail.

"_Prowl?"_

"_Bumblebee, is Sideswipe with you?"_ Prowl didn't waste time on pleasantries even during the most normal of circumstances, but he seemed especially hurried now.

"_Yes he is... I'll patch him in." _ Feeling pressed by Prowl's tone, Bumblebee reached out to Sideswipe's internal channel and was met with some resistance initially. Bumblebee persisted, more forcefully, until the indignant snap of Sideswipe rushing into the shared frequency indicated his displeasure at being harassed.

"_I'm looking! I'm looking!"_ Sideswipe said with exasperation at Bumblebee's refusal to relent, unaware that Prowl was present.

"_I know that, and now I want you to stop,"_ Prowl voiced his command.

It obviously grabbed Sideswipe's attention straight away, as the Autobot sounded bewildered. _"What? But we've only just got here,"_ he complained.

"_Why do you want us to stop, Prowl?"_ Bumblebee asked. _"This was Allison's last registered location."_

"_That's why I'm calling. I have some new information for the both of you."_

"I hate it when you do that 'Bee, because I know you're ignoring me!" Sari wailed from beneath him, but he waved a reassuring hand in her direction trying to keep himself from getting distracted.

"_What's going on Prowl?"_ Bumblebee queried, kneeling down to let Sari latch onto his arm, if only to reassure her that she wasn't forgotten.

"_Allison and Sunstreaker are no longer at your current location—"_

"_Get to the fraggin' point, Prowl," _Sideswipe growled with sudden impatience. "_If you know where they are, just tell us already so we can go get them and go home."_ There was an affronted ripple of exasperation that passed over their shared com link.

"_It appears that Allison was picked up by Minneapolis law enforcement and taken into their custody, where she contacted Agent Fowler. Sunstreaker followed her there,"_ Prowl said, preparing to continue.

"_That's...a good thing, right? I mean, does that mean she's safe now?" _Bumblebee asked hopefully, looking down at Sari as he waited for Prowl to continue.

"_That's not the end of it, I'm afraid." _Prowl did not sound happy._ "Agent Fowler sent one of his men to retrieve her and, as I understand it, they were intercepted by Knock Out. Violently. The agent was neutralized, and contact with Allison was dropped shortly after. Fowler hasn't heard anything from her since, but he did say that she mentioned Sunstreaker being there, and there being a fight."_

"_Neutralized," _Bumblebee repeated, unhappily, knowing full well what that meant. _"And Sunstreaker?"_

"_We haven't been able to hail him on any frequency, and Ratchet hasn't been able to bring up his vitals on any of his... medical machines."_

Bumblebee heard a voice speak over Prowl in the background. It sounded like Ratchet. _"They're called diagnostic monitors. It's really not all that difficult."_

"_Right," _Prowl muttered. "_I can send you the coordinates Fowler has given us. They show us the last known location of his agent's phone. That should give you something to go on. Maybe you can find some clue as to where they've been taken."_

"_You say 'they'," _Sideswipe murmured._ "I take it you assume Sunstreaker was taken with Allison?"_

"_Either that, or..." _Prowl left the sentence hanging, not needing to bring up what Sideswipe knew was the only other alternative.

"_Okay, we'll take it from here. We'll call it in if we find anything," _Bumblebee said, feeling his spark grow heavy as Prowl's words began to sink in. Sideswipe joined them shortly after the link was suddenly cut, and his expression was one of inconceivable shame.

"I swear," he said. "If he's taken her straight to them..."

"Sideswipe, don't think like that. You heard it from Prowl. It definitely sounds like Sunstreaker put up a fight against them."

Sideswipe sighed. "I know, it's just... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything." He was looking down at Sari, a deep sadness in his optics as he blinked slowly. "I wish I could tell Allison I'm sorry, too. She's going to hate me now. I'm sure she already hates Sunstreaker." Disappointment wasn't nearly the word strong enough to describe his tone. "Unless she's already dead..."

"We don't know that yet." Bumblebee put a hand on Sideswipe's shoulder. "And you have _nothing_ to apologize for. I really doubt she blames you in any case. You're far too charming for that. Sunstreaker, on the other hand..."

Sideswipe gave a small, weak laugh. "You're right. We're gonna find them. And then I'm gonna kill Sunny personally for putting us through all this trouble." He looked down at Sari. "Come on. Let's go check out those coordinates."

* * *

><p>Wheeljack kept glancing nervously at the door, straining his audio sensors to try and hear even the slightest bit of the conversation happening outside. The door was sound-proof, so it was useless, but he couldn't help but fidget nervously as he prepared the final shut-down for Teletraan-1's non-critical systems that they had opted to leave active till the last minute.<p>

Suddenly, as if on cue, the door swung open heavily. The door itself seemed to take its time opening, as if to cause Wheeljack even more agony than necessary, and soon enough after Optimus Prime entered the room. His shoulders were heavy, optics dimmed as he bowed his head toward Wheeljack, and this was the only evidence he needed to know that what Fowler had brought, and what he was about to hear was very bad news. This was his worst fears realized, and he felt his spark seize tightly within his chassis as he placed a hand across his chest.

Wheeljack found that he could no longer stand. His servos started to give out, knee joints trembling as his shaking hands tried to find purchase on the darkened computer console in front of him. It was Prime's surprisingly quick movements that prevented the scientist from collapsing onto the floor, and with strong hands he eased Wheeljack down into the monitor seat.

"Easy now, Wheeljack" Prime said soothingly, but it did not ease the pain. "It's not over yet."

"Please, just tell me what happened..." Wheeljack said, voice wavering as his vents tightened with emotion.

"Nothing is certain... but it appears that Allison and Sunstreaker were attacked by Decepticons," Prime said, speaking softly. Wheeljack couldn't help but feel a flash of incomprehensible rage towards Sunstreaker at that moment. It ripped through every circuit and neural sensor like an electrical current passing through him, and he found some strength to clench his fists tightly. He may have been collateral damage in this whole scenario, but it was because of him that any of this had even happened. Wheeljack found he didn't have an ounce of sympathy for the 'bot.

"I...was afraid of that," Wheeljack managed weakly as the grief took over once more, voice nearly unheard as he flashed dimly.

"Evidence suggests that they were taken, but Fowler was able to track Allison's last known location based on a call she made prior to her capture. Bumblebee and Sideswipe are heading towards that location as we speak."

Wheeljack looked up, optics dimmed. "She... she contacted Fowler?" He had stated it out loud, dimly wondering with muddled confusion why Allison had contacted the human and not him. A few loose threads began to fall into place, and that explained why Sari had answered Allison's cell phone instead: because Allison hadn't had her cell phone at all. They had known, even from that point, that Allison was missing. They had spoken to him on the phone as if nothing had been wrong. They'd lied to him. Wheeljack suddenly felt very much like a fool.

"The train she was on stopped in the human city of Minneapolis. She was found by their local law enforcement and she was able to contact Agent Fowler, who sent someone to retrieve her." Optimus Prime said, placing a hand against Wheeljack's shoulder. "The agent was killed protecting Allison."

Wheeljack's stunned state of mind was making it hard to keep a single thought where it should be, but he was coherent enough to feel a sting of remorse at that news. "I'm sorry to hear that. I'll need to thank Agent Fowler later for his man's sacrifice." With a heavy cycle of air, Wheeljack's optics dropped to the floor. "What then?" A part of him didn't want to hear the answer, but he needed to know.

"Don't lose hope yet, Wheeljack. Allison was able to contact Fowler after that, so it is very likely she may still be alive." Wheeljack looked up at him with some disbelief, hearing the words that were being spoken to him, but unable to truly process what they meant. "She said that Sunstreaker was with her." This was added almost as an afterthought, as if it was supposed to make him feel better. On the contrary, that was the Autobot he trusted the _least._

"Who attacked them?" Wheeljack asked. He was finding it hard to believe that there might be some chance Allison might still be alive, but he clung desperately to it.

"Agent Fowler was not sure, but Allison said she believed it was Knock Out. The fact that she was able to make a call out suggests that she might be alive. I'm of the opinion that the Decepticons weren't out to kill her." He paused, obviously understanding that this wasn't exactly a more positive realization. "I know that comes as little comfort."

"Being captured by the Decepticons is not a fate I would wish on anyone." Wheeljack said, feeling numb. Allison had never actually met Knock Out, which confirmed that Sunstreaker must have been there to identify him. Either that or she'd heard it straight from Knock Out himself, but that scenario would have more likely ended up with her being dead before getting a chance to repeat that information. "The Decepticons don't take prisoners; only trophies. Knock Out enjoys playing with his prey, _before _dismembering them." Wheeljack added tonelessly, looking down. He wanted to be alone, but didn't know how to tell Optimus Prime to simply leave. At least a quick death would have been..._quick_. Maybe even painless. But Knock Out did not deal in _quick, painless deaths_. A shudder ran through Wheeljack as he agonized over this fact.

"We can assume that Knock Out attempted to infiltrate our base using a holoform for a reason: not to simply choose who he wanted to kill, but to scout for something to use to their advantage. There is always hope," Optimus Prime added, trying to bring reason. It was still bleak, but Wheeljack found some solace in talking about it.

"If that's true, then I'm given the impression that the Decepticons specifically targeted Allison. They weren't just being opportunistic." Wheeljack looked up at Prime, anguish in his optics. "But_ why_, Prime?"

"If I were to hazard a guess, I would assume it would have something to do with the device that you and Allison were investigating." Wheeljack looked down again, fist tensing. That slagging Pendulum. He wanted to crush the damned thing and be done with it. "I know what you're thinking, but we can't jump to conclusions, and we can't rush into what we may think to be the right decision before completely considering all possible outcomes. We-"

The soft, steady ping of Teletraan-1's main communication module sounded out across the room, cutting Prime off; it was an incoming transmission. Optimus reached out to receive the call, but Wheeljack caught his arm, restraining him. When Prime gave Wheeljack a questioning look, the engineer replied,

"That's an open Decepticon channel, Prime. Be careful what you say."

Optimus nodded. "Trust me." Wheeljack hesitantly let go, and let Prime activate the call. There was no image on the screen at first, merely static. "This is Optimus Prime. Identifiy yourself, Decepticon." A voice spoke out almost immediately.

"Well now... I thought maybe you'd be too busy to talk to me, Prime. You won't _believe_ what I did today."

The distinctive voice was clearly Knock Out, and the sound of it caused Wheeljack to bristle, his wing panels standing on end with sudden anger. Completely discarding his prior caution to Prime, he snapped at the Decepticon.

"Where is she, Knock Out?" Wheeljack jumped to his feet, the anger coursing through him filling him with renewed energy. He would have smashed his fist straight into the monitor if Optimus Prime hadn't been there to stop him, wanting nothing more than to claw at the smug visage of Knock Out that finally appeared on the screen.

Optimus Prime threw Wheeljack a raised brow, silently questioning Wheeljack's outburst. Wheeljack nodded, remembering what was at stake. "I know," he said, voice lowering substantially in hopes the Decepticon wouldn't hear him. "Caution."

"Is that you, Wheeljack? Well, aren't I just hitting all the right notes today. Cutting to the chase as usual I see. Aha… _chase_..." Knock Out smirked, finding something amusing. "Don't worry, she's perfectly safe with me." The Decepticon's eyes glowed hotly as a subtle grin slipped across his face. "For now." He was standing in a darkened room, unrecognizable in its layout. It didn't appear to be the Nemesis' control room, so Wheeljack assumed that the Decepticon was somewhere else. This revelation disturbed him greatly.

"Oh, and the loud, yellow one is also safe, by the way. I'm sure he'll be happy to know you inquired about him." Knock Out added, and he almost sounded casually intrigued by the way Wheeljack had seemingly skipped over Sunstreaker's state of functioning. Truthfully it hadn't been on his mind.

"I admit, he certainly has an impressive visual aesthetic, but his attitude could do with a little... adjusting. Although, all that bottled up _aggression_ would make a fine Decepticon to add to our ranks."

"How do I know she's safe?" Wheeljack rumbled with anger, passing over the almost cruel remarks about Sunstreaker. Right now that was his least favorite Autobot in the world, and he was having a hard time mustering up any sort of sympathy for him.

"I guess you'll simply have to trust me. Don't worry, I'm perfectly able to restrain the need to open her up and see what's inside. Though, for how long is unclear. I'm an artist with a blank canvas Wheeljack, and it pains me to see it untouched. The only reason she's alive right now is because I'm curious to see how far you'll go to rescue her."

"Your fight is with us, Knock Out", Optimus Prime interjected finally. "Not the human. Surely there is something you want from all this. I don't see you going to all this trouble just for a human."

"You couldn't be more wrong. This is a unique opportunity for me, Prime. I've never had something quite like this to work on. Besides, there is no bargaining. That's not how this works. We're not some petty criminals looking to gain the upper hand. We have Wheeljack's little friend here. And we have the obnoxious yellow one—"

"His name is Sunstreaker," Optimus said, firmly.

"Yes, a nice name; brings to mind a certain degree of power, and beauty. It's a shame about the mouth; otherwise he would be a rather fine example of physical prowess." The way Knock Out glorified his possession of Sunstreaker was clear objectification of the Autobot's value; Sunstreaker was a resource, not a prisoner of any individual significance. This wasn't unique to any single victim of Knock Out's, however, which is what made the apathetic Decepticon so dangerous. "The point is they are ours to do as we wish. You have something we want that I know you will give up for the right reasons. We have something _you_ want that we will _not_ give up. You, however, are also predictable, and you will come to their rescue, like all predictable Autobots. And then we shall take it from you."

"What is it you want, Knock Out?"

"You already know the answer to that, Wheeljack. The Pendulum. We want it. And the speed in which you deliver it will determine the amount of scars Allison will bear by the time you reach her." Knock Out smiled. "For such a small creature, they have so many places to cut. All that covering they wear can be quite misleading you know. There's so many tempting options as to where to begin the bleeding." Knock Out's eyes were alight with perverse fascination, and Wheeljack found himself speechless at this macabre dialog. He felt his systems heating up, the terrifying sensation that had been so controlling when he had overpowered Starscream: the protective need to kill Knock Out—messily—and it was so frightening and foreign to him that he truly didn't know how to think straight.

There was a muffled yell in the background, and Knock Out rolled his eyes. "There's that mouth again. I think I'll start by removing those irritating vocal processors on your Autobot friend."

Wheeljack shook his head. "The other day, when you infiltrated our grounds... You were here for Allison, weren't you?"

Knock Out nodded. "Bingo. Got it in one. Though I had actually just intended on scouting the area out, I didn't think I'd be quite so lucky as to run into her in person. Your yellow friend just made my job that much easier by putting her on that train." Knock Out shrugged theatrically. "He is just a bonus: a gift for Megatron. Who knows what he'll do with him, but that's not my problem."

"If you lay one, single servo on her I will-"

"Wheeljack," Optimus Prime warned, but Knock Out's laugh interrupted them both.

"Don't worry, I won't lay one single servo on her. I'll lay _several." _He slithered. "Do hurry though. The temptation is killing me." Something seemed to strike him as amusing again. "Did you get that? It's killing me...waiting to kill her. Isn't that just _funny?_"

Optimus spoke up loudly, ending the frightening tangent that Knock Out was taking the conversation. "_Alright,_ Knock Out. Your message is understood."

"I'd ask Allison if she wanted to say a few final words, but I really find long goodbyes boring. Besides, she's a bit tied up at the moment and isn't really in any shape to say much of anything at all." He seemed to realize something, and chuckled. "There I go again with the jokes. I tend to make these when I'm in a good mood." He made a motion as if to turn away, but then turned back. "Oh, and there is just one small additional thing we need."

Optimus narrowed his eyes at Knock Out. "And what would that be?"

Knock Out pointed at Wheeljack. "Him."

Wheeljack and Prime exchanged glances. "What do you need with me?"

"That's supposed to be a surprise, so I guess you'll just have to come and find out."

"You're in luck," Wheeljack growled. "Considering I was planning on bashing down your door anyway." Optimus Prime grabbed Wheeljack's shoulder firmly as if to hold him back, but Wheeljack pushed him away. "I hope you've made peace with Primus, because I'm coming for you—" Knock Out held up a hand to stop him, and there was a muffled shout from his end. It was faint, and it was distinctly female. It was impossible to make out any words, but it was clearly unhappy.

"Ah, Breakdown is here, and he has brought me something nice. Too bad we don't have time for him to say hi. The clock is ticking, Autobots." The transmission abruptly ended, leaving the screen in darkness, and Wheeljack scrambled forward at the last moment as if he could simply grab Knock Out and prevent him from walking away. He had heard Allison's voice calling out in the background, and it was enough to know she was alive. But the open-ended uncertainty of her immediate fate left Wheeljack feeling a deep-seated rage that he was about to take out on the screen alone.

Optimus Prime pulled him back, eyes hardened with the need to convey his words which went ignored as Wheeljack quickly walked away.

"Wheeljack... you can't."

Wheeljack rested his hand on the door frame as he exited the room. "Stop me."


	20. Impromptu Recruiting

**(c) Hasbro/Takara**

* * *

><p>Allison was not certain where she was, only barely becoming aware of her body once more as the pace of her breathing quickened. At some point she had lost consciousness, faintly remembering staring up at a trio of Decepticons before the red one—Knock Out—had reached down and plucked her limp body off of the ground. She hadn't even had the control of her muscles to muster a protest. She could only watch and let everything happen around her as if she were merely a spectator to her own fate.<p>

Having experienced it once before with Sunstreaker, she wasn't as caught off-guard when Knock Out had transformed with her in his hand, simultaneously dropping her into the passenger seat of his vehicular form. Not surprisingly, he was what appeared to be a very sleek, expensive looking sports car with a smooth, red finish and a posh, black interior. Alison discovered a similarity with Sunstreaker, however, in that he was just as sterile and uninviting. All Allison remembered as she felt living coils wrap around her from the seat was that such an egotistical flourish seemed so _typical_. But then Knock Out had assaulted her with some kind of strobing, pulsing light against her eyes and she had blacked out.

After regaining consciousness some time later, she was able to register that she was lying on a stone floor. She felt dirt and debris under her hands, but nothing much else other than roughly cut rock. The ceiling above her was high, and the room was dark, save for the faint glow of Cybertronian prison bars behind her. It took her eyes a moment to adjust to the room she was in: large, square, and empty. The wavering bars of light blocking off the adjacent side of the room were similar to what she remembered holding Starscream in. This time however, she was on the opposite side. She was the prisoner.

Testing her abilities, she was able to sluggishly force her arms to move; jerky at first, as whatever paralytic drug Knock Out had injected her with burned out of her system. It was not unlike trying to jump-start a car as she struggled to get her brain's commands to the very ends of her neurons. Finally, she was met with slow success, moving on to concentrating getting her legs to meet the very same demands. Once the first priority on her list was resolved, she set to work on figuring out where exactly she was.

There wasn't anything new to be found upon a more detailed inspection, and her eyes were still hazy from whatever Knock Out had done to her. The cell was little more than a hollowed out space in the wall, and upon further inspection it became apparent that they were in some sort of cave, the walls uneven and sloped, which indicated that they were naturally occurring, and not made by human or Cybertronian hands.

While the few cells in the Autobot base had offered meager comforts, at least they had some kind of place for a bot to sit and contemplate their position. This hollowed out chunk of rock that she was currently sequestered in had absolutely nothing. The Decepticons didn't seem all that concerned with hospitality, and clearly had no qualms about simply dumping their prisoners onto the ground. That was when she finally noticed the darkened outline of something massive sharing the cell with her.

_Sunstreaker_, she managed through muddled thoughts, and she crawled towards his still, beaten form. He was laying flat on the ground and showed no signs of consciousness. Previous mistrust gone, instinctively she found herself drawn to the Autobot to make sure he was alright. After seeing what they'd done to him, and how much damage he'd taken, stirrings of real fear began to grip her heart. They'd both been captured, and Sunstreaker looked in no shape to be able to fight his way out.

She reached for the plating of his forearm that was draped forward along the side of his face, which was flat against the ground. He was lying on his chest, and as Allison managed to come to a partial stand to try her own hand at assessing his condition, she slipped on something wet covering the ground. Managing to keep her balance by gripping an edge of his arm, she looked down to see translucent, pink oil pooling beneath him. She'd seen this fluid before; Sunstreaker was bleeding. She remembered now, the harpoon-like weapon that had struck him in the chest. It had been a terrifying-looking wound, and while Sunstreaker had shown incredible bravery even as the vile thing protruded from his chest, Allison now feared the worst.

The Autobot was warm to the touch, but without knowing how to tell if a Cybertronian was dead or not, this was the only evidence she had to tell her that he was still alive. That was until she felt the subtle, warm burst of air from the vent at the side of his face—one of the horn-like structures that lined his helm—which gave her further indication that he wasn't dead. A cloud of dust was dispersed from the ground where his face was planted, brought up by his exhalation.

Thinking this a good indication that maybe Sunstreaker was waking up, Allison managed to limp around his arm to the warm plating of his cheek that she could touch. Having to maneuver around the horns on his head proved to be more difficult than she would have initially expected, but with his arms spread out on the ground before him she found that she'd had to do a decent amount of clamoring over metal limbs.

Allison stood before Sunstreaker's face, and hesitated. Whereas she wouldn't hesitate to touch Bumblebee or Wheeljack, there was so much bad blood between herself and her original captor that she initially felt a small wave of disgust. Not sure on how to attempt waking him, she settled on slapping his metal cheek. Her first attempt was a weak slap that didn't appear to be any more effective than a pestering fly might have been. She tried again with more force, though this simply resulted in a sore palm.

Looking at the panels along the side of his face, she tried to work out where his ears may have been, not letting herself get fooled like she had been with Wheeljack. Initially she'd assumed that the blinking speech panels on his head had been ears, given their location, but she'd soon found out that there were separate sensors on the sides of his face for that very purpose. Assuming the same for Sunstreaker, and that his horns most definitely were not ears (and she had the faintest impression he'd take great offense to such a notion) she tried to spot anything that looked similar to the panels on Wheeljack. Eventually she gave up, and resorted to simply calling out while standing close enough that he might hopefully hear her.

"Hey… Sunstreaker… Please wake up…" She spoke earnestly, though tried to keep her voice low in case any nearby Decepticons overheard them. _Not that it would matter_, she thought, sourly. She didn't want to be alone in this cell when they came back, and she had no doubts that they _would_ come back. Allison was just surprised that she had survived this long.

There was a steady clicking noise, followed by a soft whir of moving parts, and to Allison's ears it sounded like a computer booting up for the first time, albeit on a much larger scale; Sunstreaker was waking up, and she felt a relieved breath escape her. Momentarily, she wondered where it had come from. She was in this situation _because_ of him, but at that moment, after watching him come to her rescue (even though she knew it was probably just to keep himself from getting murdered by Wheeljack, rather than legitimate concern for her safety), she found that she was having a hard time staying mad. Especially when he looked like he was ready to fall to pieces at any moment. Sunstreaker was the only protection she had right now, and for the foreseeable future, so her survival depended on him not wanting to kill her.

Sunstreaker stirred, his head shifting as his eyes slowly brightened underneath the shuttered lids that framed them. At this range, Allison was able to make out what could almost be likened to a camera shutter covering the central lens, which opened to reveal the glowing blue light behind them. Sunstreaker spat out pink fluid, which hit the floor next to Allison's feet. Such a forced action made her step back as his arms started to shift, suddenly regretting being so close to him when it was likely he wasn't entirely aware of her presence.

"Ugh," Sunstreaker slurred. "Remind me to thank Soundwave for being so gentle." He slid a hand along the ground, gingerly touching his wounded chest as he tried to bring himself up. "Frag head…"

Allison tentatively reached out to touch him, wanting to provide some comfort, but sheepishly retracted her hand back quickly. She doubted Sunstreaker would respond well to being touched by her, much less any human. She got the impression that he had a personal bubble that wasn't to be messed with, and she was suddenly struck with the awkward need to step back as he lifted his upper-body with his hands.

"Are...are you okay?" Allison offered quietly, feeling that saying nothing would have only made things worse. As if he had been completely unaware of her presence, Sunstreaker's head shot upwards, instantly marking her with a startled gaze. From this distance, she could see the inner workings of his pupils narrow beneath the sapphire glow of his eyes, and for a moment he looked surprised. Something close to relief passed over his face, so quick that it was gone nearly before it appeared, but Allison filed it away in the back of her mind. It would do to have that as a reminder next time she wanted to convince herself that she hated this yellow Autobot in front of her.

"Oh yeah. I feel _awesome_," Sunstreaker said, bitterly. "I always wanted a gaping hole in my chest. It'll make a great sunroof." He had managed to bring himself to a partial sitting position, resting on the panels of his knee joints as he examined his chest. He was prodding at the ragged edges of the hole, scowling between every wince as his fingers passed over the mangled plating. From what Allison could tell it was no longer leaking, but had left a trail of dried fluid down his front paneling. "Ratchet is going to have a field day. I, on the other hand... Ugh. This is going to take weeks to buff out..." Sunstreaker was talking to himself, making faces as he continued his attempts to clean the dried fluid off. Feeling largely ignored, Allison took a step back. Her feet slid along the ground, which must have caught Sunstreaker's attention because he looked at her again.

For a moment all Allison could do was stare back at the dented, beaten mess that was Sunstreaker, and feel nothing but a deep-seated fear. He'd terrified her, threatened her, kidnapped her, then stuffed her in a train car, only to show up in Minneapolis and all but chase her straight into a group of Decepticons. Now she was alone with him again, and for a moment, she couldn't help but think he might save the Decepticons the trouble, if only to get back at her for getting his plating all scuffed. Allison had no proof that he had intentionally chased them straight into a Decepticon trap, but she wouldn't have even been here if not for him. And Agent Combs would very likely still be alive.

"I knew you were nothing but trouble," Sunstreaker grumbled, and Allison found her fear obliterated by this one simple statement.

"Pardon me?" Allison asked through gritted teeth, unable to believe her ears. "Are you somehow suggesting that this is… _my fault_?" She tried to keep her voice low, but felt herself beginning to shake. It was either from her physical ordeal, or pure, barely controlled rage that she found herself getting faint.

Sunstreaker looked startled, drawing back like an affronted horse that had just had its nose pinched, and somehow Allison found this satisfying. The Autobot actually looked speechless, and if she was reading the shifting of his eyes correctly, he almost looked a bit guilty. When he didn't immediately speak Allison decided to continue.

"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for _you_. You wouldn't have that hole in your chest, if it wasn't for _you_. We wouldn't have been run into the ground by Decepticons, if it wasn't... for _you_." Allison paused, trying to clear her thoughts. "That agent would still be alive, if it wasn't for _you. _All of this?" Allison gestured around her, ignoring the weird creak her shoulder made when she moved. "…Is because you are an egotistical, selfish, narcissistic bastard, who doesn't like to share, so excuse me if I sound a little bit _angry_." Allison stopped, feeling satisfied as she took a heavy breath. Sunstreaker blinked owlishly at her, and for a moment she thought that an argument was about to begin.

"I…" Sunstreaker began with a frustrated huff, but he paused as his face re-arranged into something of a soft frown. At that moment Allison saw remarkable similarities between the structures of his face and Sideswipe's, and she wondered why she was noticing this now. It could have been because he always walked around with that awful scowl on his face, which hid what his face may have really looked like, and along with that any real physical connection he had to his brother.

"I'm cold, I'm wet, I'm hungry, and I'm in pain… and I just want Wheeljack." Allison said with an indignant huff. She limped back to the wall, finding that thinking of Wheeljack was hitting her much harder emotionally than she thought it should have. Every other time she'd been through a fantastical disaster, Wheeljack had been there to be a source of completely irrational optimism and comfort. It was also a bonus that he actually cared about her well-being, so she was finding it difficult to settle for what felt like the abnormality of his absence. Right now she was stuck inside an enemy cell with Soundwave and a mad, sadistic Decepticon doctor waiting on the outside, with only the most unpleasant Autobot to share the experience with. It didn't help that this Autobot was the reason she was even there in the first place. She didn't think he'd meant to get her caught by Decepticons, but right now that hardly mattered. "I'm really not in the mood," she added, slumping against the wall.

"I'm sorry…" The words caught Allison off-guard, and they were spoken with so much shamed softness that she almost didn't hear them over the grating her shoes made against the floor. Looking up startled, she swallowed hard as she was met with a very confused and a very sad Autobot face, who looked like he wanted to say more but couldn't quite string the words together. Allison felt her anger diminish. Sunstreaker wasn't completely absolved of what he'd done to her, but maybe, just maybe he was showing a little bit of remorse.

"It's… fine…" Allison said, even though it really wasn't. They were still trapped, their fates uncertain, but if Sunstreaker felt even the slightest bit sorry then dying may prove to be just a tiny bit more bearable. For the sake of making peace, there really was no sense in arguing with Sunstreaker at this point. What was done was done, and now their attention needed to be on surviving. "If you really must know, all it would have taken was a mature conversation if you had some kind of problem. That's typically what adults do."

"You are a child. Your age is nothing compared to-" He broke off suddenly when he realized how strongly he was coming off, and he settled on a forced sigh. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me," Allison said earnestly. "Please, I think at this point I've heard everything. And I know what you're going through with your brother..."

"What would you know about abandonment? Hardly anything I would gather," Sunstreaker said, breaking off with hesitation. At first, Allison was wondering if she'd suddenly joined another conversation, not entirely sure what this had to do with his insecurities regarding Sideswipe. She looked at him with some expectancy, wondering if the Autobot was about to open up to her. She got the sense that not many had the privilege, but seeing as they were probably about to die, he likely figured it didn't really matter.

"I think I would know plenty. I have no family. Although if you would have thought to ask me, maybe you would have known that-"

"Did you live on the street, forced to be the one to take care of your other half; your stupid, careless, naive other half? Fending off thieves and slavers that would have just carried off his oblivious aft if you hadn't been there to stop 'em, and making sure there was enough energon to keep us alive through the next orn... only to end up having to fight just to have the _right_ to stay alive. _That's_ abandonment." Sunstreaker was talking quickly, eyes glowing hotly as this information spilled forth, and all Allison could do was watch him in stunned silence.

"No… no I didn't." It was all she could really say. "I'm sorry I didn't know."

"Well you _might_ have known, if you'd have asked," Sunstreaker said bitterly, scoffing. Allison felt her mouth go slack for a moment as she processed this.

"This is what started this whole mess. You didn't like me talking to Sideswipe, let alone yourself. How was I supposed to ask you—"

"You said I was _freakish_."

Allison didn't immediately respond, letting that last phrase sink in. At first, she didn't even recall that descriptor ever coming out of her mouth before it hit her. She'd said it one time, in passing, when she'd been looking for Bumblebee and had nearly bumped right into Sunstreaker's leg. He'd _actually_ been stewing about that, this whole, damned, time.

"I…" She was at a loss for words. "Oh my God… I was _joking_… I didn't actually mean it." Allison sighed, feeling her brow tighten as an anxious headache began to make itself known. It was either that or a concussion. "You decided that I shouldn't talk to your brother, because you thought I'd made _fun of you_?" When Sunstreaker didn't immediately respond, it was all she needed to confirm what she'd just figured out on her own. He had looked away, almost embarrassed, and things were starting to fall into place.

Whatever had happened to them in the past, had forced them to grow up too fast. Maybe it was catching up to them now. She gathered that they'd grown up alone, and that Sunstreaker had always been the one who took care of his brother. His brother obviously didn't have the idealistic drive that Sunstreaker had, and she got the impression Sunstreaker felt under-appreciated. She doubted Sideswipe was actually that oblivious; nobody could grow up and survive on the streets and be completely brainless. Allison almost thought that Sunstreaker had some kind of hero complex, a sense of martyrdom for his own biased ideals.

"Look, Sunstreaker... Humans have this thing... this way of dealing with stress and problems. They joke around sometimes and, well, sometimes they say things that they don't mean."

Sunstreaker sat back against the wall, his arms resting on his knees. He looked at Allison out of the corner of his eyes. "I'm familiar with sarcasm, Allison." He sighed. "But I know what you're trying to say. I just need to take care of my brother."

"Sometimes what we think is best for those we love isn't really the best thing for them."

Sunstreaker gave out a snort. "Please."

"You have a hatred for human kind, I get it. You think we're beneath you. You have pride in who you are and that's good. But Sideswipe clearly doesn't share your sentiments, and there is nothing wrong with that."

"You sound like Ratchet, right now. Do you know that? Sitting there...trying to analyze my processor and figure out why I'm so angry." He imitated Ratchet's voice, and it was clear to Allison that this was something Sunstreaker had probably been subjected to by the Autobot medic many times. It reminded her that her small window into Sunstreaker's problems wasn't going to magically repair his broken perspective on life. "A lot of reasons," he muttered. "I just am."

Allison sat back against the opposite wall, not feeling like she had much to offer to Sunstreaker that he would appreciate. She felt bad for him, in a way. But he had brought this on himself and he had to figure that out on his own. She wrapped her arms around her knees, trying not to think about the insane doctor that was somewhere close by.

"I won't pry," she muttered.

Sunstreaker was quiet for a moment. "Please don't tell Sideswipe I talked to you about it," he asked. "I'm still trying to figure out why I did."

"I won't. Though it's something you should probably talk to him about yourself."

Sunstreaker shook his head. "No. It would only upset him."

"That's kind of what siblings are for," Allison pushed. "Emotional support and all that. Besides, I'm sure Sideswipe wants you to be happy."

Sunstreaker gave a small, bitter laugh. "He probably wants to kill me right now."

"He probably does, yes. And quite frankly I do as well."

Sunstreaker raised an eyebrow. "This is that emotional support you were talking about just now?"

"It's part of it, yes. It's okay to be mad once in a while, Sunstreaker. But being mad your entire life is no fun. Trust me on this." Allison thought she caught a smile appearing on his face, feeling invigorated that she'd maybe, just maybe begun to crack his outer shell.

To her devastating disappointment it vanished immediately when he presumably heard the same thing that suddenly crept into her awareness. Heavy, deliberate footsteps were coming, and it didn't sound like just one pair of feet, but several. They were finally coming.

Sudden paralyzing fear gripped Allison as she was suddenly reminded where exactly she was sitting: a Decepticon prison cell. She couldn't move, and for a moment Sunstreaker's gaze was locked on the cell bars, very much alert now. His head turned quickly to her.

"Get to the back; behind me. _Now."_

Allison obeyed, not really sure what else she could have done given her circumstances. She tried to put as much distance between herself and the bars, hoping to stay hidden in the shadows of the back wall. Sunstreaker had already jumped to his feet and moved to the front of the cell in anticipation of who was coming. Allison wanted very much to just disappear, but Sunstreaker's looming stance in front of her was enough to remind her that things were not about to change.

Sunstreaker was shielding her from view, looking poised to attack at a second's notice, though the pain from his injuries gave him a somewhat slumped posture. He still managed to look aggressive, though it gave Allison more the impression of a tired warrior ready to fight to the bitter end than one who intended to win. If things got messy in the small cell, she doubted she'd survive.

When the massive Decepticon came into view, flanked by at least four of what she could only describe as robot clones of one another, Allison thought that Sunstreaker was going to jump straight into the electrified bars. Allison found that she couldn't press herself further into the wall.

This Decepticon was massively larger than any other she had seen so far, and she found herself thoroughly convinced this one was some kind of blue tank given all the bulk. It's red face contrasted harshly with the white and lightish blue body, and it's pale orange-yellow eyes were glowing in the semi-darkness. It was leering at Sunstreaker with an expression of contemptible amusement , while the other, faceless robots around it stood there seemingly impartial to what was going on around them. They didn't immediately notice her huddled in the back behind Sunstreaker's legs, and Allison prayed that it stayed that way.

To Allison's surprise, Sunstreaker spoke first. "So...are you comin' in or not? I'm itching for another chance to kick your sorry aft," Allison's heart skipped a beat as she wondered why on Earth he would be encouraging the Decepticon to enter the cell. Allison gathered that this _another chance_ meant that this Decepticon was the Breakdown that Knock Out had referred to back at the crash. Names hardly mattered at this point, however. Allison had come to the conclusion that all the Decepticons were either incredibly huge and built like bulldozers with personalities to match, or were out of their minds with insanity. They were all about sharp angles and intimidating girth, and not one of them had a moral gear in their bodies. Starscream, for example, had a creepy gangliness that made him most sinister in appearance alone. All she could hope, as she tried to remain perfectly still, was that she was small enough to remain unnoticed.

"Hah! Hardly. You're not worth my time, runt." The Decepticon grunted, his voice a very deep, throaty growl that seemed to embody his very size. "Besides, I'm not here for you. Knock Out needs a distraction." As if on cue, Breakdown's eyes shifted and wasted no time in spotting Allison sitting in the back, confirming that her allusions of being invisible had been completely false.

With a dropping heart she realized that she was screwed. She didn't need any reminders as to what sort of 'distraction' Breakdown was referring to. Starscream had been bad enough, all creepy and perverse, but somehow Allison got the impression that Knock Out was even more unhinged, and astronomically more terrifying. Medical personnel and blood-thirsty sadism fit together to create something Allison could only describe as monstrous. Knock Out was no mere serial killer; he was a fully experienced war criminal.

Sunstreaker shifted his weight, firmly placing his foot in front of Allison. "Over my dead body," he said, confidently. Sunstreaker's challenge was only met by another barking laugh from the Decepticon, while the seemingly lifeless drones around him stood placidly by. Allison didn't doubt that they probably weren't as passive as their blank appearance seemed.

"That can be arranged." Breakdown pointed at Sunstreaker. "See, you have a date with the interrogation room." He shifted his hand to point to Allison, who was too busy trying to look small. "The fleshbag comes with me." He tilted his head towards the soldiers flanking him. "As for the Autobot, whoever gets him to the interrogation room first gets to report the good news to Megatron. Who knows, maybe he'll actually thank you." All at once things started happening, for as soon as the bars disappeared with a pop of fizzling light, the four drones pounced on the waiting Sunstreaker.

The Autobot had reacted just as quickly, smashing into the four pushing bodies only to be met with overpowering resistance. The first one to lay a servo on Sunstreaker got a dent in its face plates, its eye shattering and falling out of its socket, and the second one got a kick to the stomach. But in his weakened state Sunstreaker was no match for the four drones as they piled on as one big mass. They successfully pushed him back against the adjacent wall, allowing Breakdown the privilege of sauntering into the cell. Allison felt like a rabbit being approached by a bulldozer.

The sounds of the struggle happening near her were an incoherent mess as Allison tried to unsuccessfully scuttle away from the hand that was coming towards her. Sunstreaker had almost vanished under the pile of Decepticons, but he was clearly struggling to break free. Breakdown got close enough to Allison to reach out for her, and she instinctively tried to run around him in a futile attempt to get away. His fingers clamped around her arm, and she screamed as she felt herself being pulled in the opposite direction.

"Don't touch me!" Allison was swung back, momentarily falling before she was dragged to her feet and lifted into the air. She kicked and struggled against Breakdown's hand as it closed around her body, and it only registered above her terrified shouts for Sunstreaker to save her that the Decepticon was chuckling. Sunstreaker was still pinned against the ground by the three remaining drones, however, with the fourth one cradling its shattered eye in its hands as it buzzed angrily in garbled Cybertronian.

"No!" Sunstreaker attempted to reach out, one final fruitless attempt to throw the drones off him, but their combined weight was too much for him in his wounded state. All Allison could do was watch as he disappeared from her line of sight as Breakdown took her from the cell. She couldn't see through the darkness, amplified by his rough swinging motions as she watched the ground pass below her with each lumbering step. Breakdown held her past his waist, leaving the ground tantalizingly close, but still far enough away that she knew it would have resulted in a broken neck if she tried to pull at the cables in his joints to force him to let go. It had worked once with Rumble, but that was a smaller Decepticon, and he hadn't been carrying her nearly two stories off the ground.

Allison was in the midst of her weak struggles, the plating on Breakdown's hand digging into her already aching body, when they entered another open chamber. This one was just slightly more lit than the cavern hallway they had come from, and as she tried to turn her head to look around her she only saw the corner of Knock Out's back as he stood in front of what looked to her to be a monitor. When she saw him, knowing full well what was coming next, she couldn't help but let out a weakened cry that was soon hampered when Breakdown squeezed. She was swung upwards, just in time to see the image on the monitor fade out, and for one wild, panic-stricken second she thought she saw the image of Wheeljack and Optimus Prime on the screen. Even so, this brought her no hope, as Breakdown held her aloft before Knock Out like some sort of offering.

Knock Out spun around with a flourish, simultaneously placing his hands behind him as his gaze passed between Breakdown, and Allison trapped in his hand. A terrifyingly pleased smile crept across his face as he motioned with his hand for Breakdown to put her down. It repulsed Allison how much she was reminded of Starscream. The two of them shared the same theatrical mannerisms that made them so cruel.

"_What_ a coincidence. I was just talking to your Autobot friends when you came in. Shame they had to go, but I couldn't let anything distract me from our time together." Knock Out said, walking forward and past Breakdown with quick steps before he turned around again. "I'd guess we may even have _less_ than a day before Wheeljack comes knocking down our door, so we'd best make sure we're… decent, when we meet him. Put her there, Breakdown." Knock Out motioned to the table in front of him, which was little more than a slab of metal that looked like it had been hastily thrown onto an outcropping of rocks for support. From what she'd managed to see, this certainly didn't look like what she thought the Decepticon base of operations to be, so this had to have been a temporary facility of some kind.

Allison exhaled loudly as she was dumped onto the surface, coming to a stop on her stomach as she tumbled sideways. Pressing her hands against the metal, her breath condensed on the surface directly in front of her face, but she found that she couldn't bring herself to turn around and look them straight on. She'd been surrounded by Decepticons on all sides before, and it had not been a pleasant experience then, but this time seemed far worse. She had been in an open field before, in the daytime, with open space around her. This time, she was trapped maybe 15 feet up in the air on a metal slab, in a dark, nearly pitch black cave in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by not only the two standing next to her, but presumably many more of those drones wandering around outside. Her stomach clenched tightly, knowing that she was probably about to be picked apart. Her only hope was that either Sunstreaker had gotten free or, even more unlikely, she found some way to stall for time.

"I think you have an Autobot to attend to," Knock Out said to Breakdown, pointing a slender finger in the direction they had come. "Soundwave would like to pick his brain on certain topics, but a little physical encouragement wouldn't hurt. Actually, on second thought, it probably will." Knock Out chuckled, enjoying his little laugh over the joke, though Allison didn't find it funny at all.

Breakdown grunted. "Soundwave's methods get results, sure. But I find his ways to be too sneaky. What's the point of interrogating someone if you don't get to physically lay a hand on them?" He turned to go, chuckling as he left the room. As loathsome and brutish as he was, Allison almost found herself fear Breakdown's departure, as if somehow his presence would have restrained what Knock Out was going to do to her. If she was alone with him, there was nothing to stop him. Any ideas on stalling were rapidly flying out the window.

After nothing happened for a few moments, Allison could no longer take the unknowing any longer, and she forced herself to turn around. At the corner of her vision looking upwards, she saw that Knock Out hadn't moved, and was simply watching her as if absorbed in his own musings.

"What… what do you want with me?" Allison finally managed, voice very small in the dark. Knock Out's eyes burned brightly as his passive, thoughtful expression turned into one of false comfort.

"Actually you have nothing of value to me, human," Knock Out said. "Aside from pure scientific curiosity actually, but in the end you are, how should I put it, simply a means to an end. I need you to get to something else." He placed a hand on the surface near her, making her flinch. "You see, you and Wheeljack found something that would be of great use to us. It would be a shame to let it go to waste in your hands."

"You… you're talking about the Pendulum, aren't you?" Allison asked breathlessly, surprised. "Well, too bad. I don't have it… The Autobots have it, and that's the truth."

"That's exactly the point I'm getting at. Thanks to Soundwave, we know exactly when, where, and how you acquired it. It was simple misfortune that you happened to get to it before we did. I hear Ratchet and Wheeljack put up quite a fight." Knock Out laughed. "But I'm afraid as tough as they may be, they're all rather weak when it comes to matters of the spark. I'm almost certain it's a disease. You see, the Autobots seem to have some masochistic tendency to seek out lesser beings and throw their lives away in the name of defending said creatures. They will do what they feel is necessary for their… _friends_." The way Knock Out was eyeing her was all the evidence she needed to know that he was aware of her and Wheeljack. This was perhaps more terrifying than anything else.

"Speaking of friends," he continued. "My fellow colleague, Soundwave can be quite the talker, you know. He looks quiet and imposing now, but get him alone on a quiet day over a pint of high-grade and the stories he tells..." Knock Out picked up a long, vicious looking metal knife from a small table, admiring it with enthusiasm. The blade was serrated, and was curved in a horrific hook at the end. A sly smile appeared on his face, and his eyes rolled in Allison's direction.

"There's one such tale that you might find rather relevant. I hear that our friend Wheeljack is rather _fond_ of you…" Knock Out added, voice pitched to frighteningly pleased levels. "And Wheeljack is such a classic example of the Autobot syndrome; stoic, emotional, and _incredibly_ stupid. As such, it stands to reason that he would do whatever is necessary to ensure you're safety. And since we need him to complete what we intend to finish, I'd say that's a win-win, wouldn't you agree?"

"No," Allison said curtly. "I wouldn't call that a _win_ at all."

"I'm sad you don't think so," Knock Out mused. When Allison didn't respond further, he smirked. "Not much to say?"

"I don't like being used as bait," Allison replied, shocked at her own frankness. "I really don't know anything that you don't already know."

Knock Out grinned. "Now that's the interesting thing. You humans call your central processor a brain, right? I hear it can store a surprisingly large amount of information, for an organic at any rate. It's comparatively tiny to a Cybertronian's, of course. But the potential is there, give or take a few thousand years of evolution." Knock Out walked behind the table that Allison sat on, his hands pervasively near her head. She froze as the tips of his fingers danced near her face. He was moving them around as if drawing imaginary lines on her skull. "What I'm interested in specifically is what's locked away even to yourself. The glimpses of data that you can't recall. Things that have slipped from your mind. And the more important things that you've shoved to the back in hopes it won't slip through that little mouth of yours."

Allison looked at Knock Out, startled. "You said you were after Wheeljack, not me..."

"And I am! Wheeljack will come for you like a good, obedient Autobot, and he will bring what we need regardless of your physical state. I figure, since I'm going to be exploring your insides anyway, why not make a head start?" Knock Out leaned forward, the heat from his vents hitting Allison's face as she turned away in frightened disgust. "Like I said, scientific curiosity."

His hands were reaching for her when all at once he stopped, perhaps sensing just what Allison had. She heard new footsteps enter the room, these ones less heavy, but just as deliberate. Surprised, Knock Out turned and past him Allison saw the darkened figure of Soundwave enter the room, red visor-like eye glowing hotly in the dark. She barely heard what was next over her heavy gasps for air.

"Plans accelerated," the blue Decepticon rumbled. "Bring the human."

"But..." Knock Out protested. "But I'm only just about to start on her! How can I work my science if she's _alive_?" Allison flinched, but stayed quiet. There was nothing she could do but listen to Knock Out complain about not getting the chance to cut her open and poke at her insides.

"Bring it to interrogation," Soundwave droned, leaving Allison wondering what waited for her in that room—nothing good, no doubt.

"What? But... why?" Knock Out asked. "She serves no use there. I need her here for study!"

"She must be present. The Autobot will see the human."

"On whose orders?" Knock Out demanded.

Soundwave paused for a moment, letting the point sink in. "Lord Megatron's.**"**

The red Decepticon looked like he was about to protest further, but quickly changed his mind at the mention of his faction's leader. Knock Out threw his scalpel down onto his surface next to Allison, visibly annoyed. "Fine. I didn't want to get human blood all over my hands now anyway. It sticks in all the wrong crevices." Knock Out turned back to her. "Looks like you get to breath a little while longer." The Decepticon snarled viciously, before picking Allison up roughly as she tried in vain to scoot away, only to carry her away into the darkness with the silent Soundwave close behind them.

* * *

><p>Wheeljack prided himself on being an Autobot who was able to think on the fly; one who could adapt and reconfigure the plan of action to better suit the circumstances. It was one of the reasons why Wheeljack had always been considered one of the most resourceful mechs on the Autobot side, and it was a badge he wore with pride. It had been his own ingenuity and expertise at creating something useful out of nothing at the 11th hour that had gotten him out of several scraps in the past.<p>

Sometimes however, Wheeljack's brain moved two, sometimes three steps ahead of his actual better sense, which often led him down paths that surprised, and sometimes angered those in positions of higher authority who very rarely authorized a plan of his making. Sometimes he surprised even himself, and it was these times he had to wonder if his actual processor had a spark of its own.

One such thing he would have never considered, was throwing his own pride and better sense aside in the interest of seeking out help from an unexpected, but also unwelcome ally; _potential_ ally to be more exact, but Wheeljack found that in this matter he wasn't particularly thinking straight. Getting into a Decepticon outpost undetected required insider information, but the Autobot had little choice in this matter of the spark. His desperation to get to Allison before Knock Out touched her overrode any higher authority. He supposed while he was there, he was _obligated_ to help Sunstreaker out, but he had plenty of time to change his mind.

This particular matter of the spark found Wheeljack staring through the cell bars of an Autobot prison cell, his fiercely burning optics carefully watching the prisoner on the other side. He had argued with himself time and again over making such a rash decision, but in the end, his overwhelming impulse to protect had won out over common sense. As a result he had a hastily thrown together plan that had a very small percentage of _not_ blowing up in his face. Resourceful indeed, but also reckless and most certainly not Autobot endorsed, but that was hardly Wheeljack's concern.

"Well?" Wheeljack asked, straining optics narrowed at the prisoner on the other side. "Will you do it?" It repulsed the Autobot to even be this close to the Decepticon, but he had no other choice. He found his fist balled tightly, one clamped around the Pendulum device—his only real leverage—that the Decepticons had worked so desperately to get at, and failed.

Starscream's long face looked tight with uncertainty, a hate-filled look of malice in his burning eyes the only true indication of what was actually happening in his processor. Wheeljack was confident however, that this Decepticon would not pass up the chance to show up his entire faction; to succeed where they had all failed, regardless of whether or not it didn't require any real physical effort.

"What makes you think you can trust me?" Starscream hissed, clearly trying to feel out Wheeljack's real game. Truthfully, there were no ulterior motives this time. Wheeljack just needed the Decepticon to cooperate, and didn't entirely care how.

"I can't, and I don't. But I'm out of options."

"Your dear leader won't rush to the rescue his own man, or the female Sunstreaker helped capture? I'm shocked. I thought Optimus Prime was made of much sterner stuff." At hearing the news of what had transpired outside of his prison cell, Starscream hadn't bothered trying to hide his amusement. Wheeljack had been able to restrain himself from knocking the lecherous Decepticon flat, but he wasn't entirely sure how long that would last. Thankfully Starscream's amusement was short lived; clearly his penchant for self-preservation had not waned while in prison.

"What I'm doing isn't entirely your concern," Wheeljack said simply, but when Starscream's expression didn't budge, Wheeljack amended his statement. "What I need to do isn't exactly...Autobot sanctioned. Optimus Prime is obligated by duty to stop me... _eventually_ at least. But the only reason we're able to have this conversation is because he isn't going to stop me _yet_—because he knows he can't. I'm on my own." In truth, Wheeljack was feeling intensely bitter with the apparent hesitancy Prime had shown regarding the safe rescue of Sunstreaker and Allison. He knew deep down that it was because the Decepticons were clearly baiting a very harsh trap, but even so, he couldn't help but feel on his own.

"And you think my presence will somehow be beneficial to your daring rescue?" Starscream was being coy, and it was obvious he didn't entirely care one way or the other how things went down. Even if he _did_ help, his number-one priority would be Starscream, and no one else, but Wheeljack wouldn't let it get to that point.

"I just need you to point me in the right direction." Wheeljack said truthfully. He didn't know where this Decepticon outpost was, and while Sideswipe and Bumblebee could follow whatever trail they had, it was possible they would be too late. He couldn't take that chance, and this Decepticon was his only opportunity for direct intel that would get him in and out in the smallest amount of time possible. For all he knew, Sunstreaker could already be dead and disassembled, and Allison could already be dying.

"What makes you think I'll help you?" Starscream asked, shifting forward. "Why should I care?" He folded his slender arms across the faux cockpit on his chest, neck bowing down like a predatory bird.

"I think you'll care," Wheeljack said. He held up his hand and opened his palm, revealing the Pendulum device to the Decepticon. Starscream merely raised an eyebrow, but gave away nothing. He was good.

"The Pendulum?" Starscream waved his hand dismissively. "What use is that to me now? Keep your trinkets Autobot, nothing will put me back in Megatron's good graces now."

Wheeljack shook his head. "You're lying. You need this data as much as Megatron. You need it so you can go crawling back to him and give it to him in person, so you can reap all the glory for having wrested it from me personally. Megatron will accept you back, as always, because he isn't stupid enough to let a dangerous wild card out of his sight," Wheeljack said, trying to appeal to Starscream's ego with flattery. "Or you can take it for yourself. Honestly, at this point I don't care."

Starscream scowled. "Do you think I'm stupid Autobot?" The Decepticon snarled, stepping forward close to the bars, so the light wavered off the sharpness of his face. "You really think I believe that you would so willingly give up such precious information, all for the sake of one single human and reckless Autobot? Optimus Prime may care about your feelings Wheeljack, but I wasn't sparked yesterday. He would stop you, any way that he could."

"Your choice." Wheeljack bluffed. What he wasn't going to tell the Decepticon, was that he'd happened to crack the Pendulum's encryption just moments before coming down, and had already transferred the locational data onto a separate storage platform. Starscream, or the Decepticons would never know until he would be long gone.

Starscream lingered for a while, obviously pretending to ponder Wheeljack's statement. His expression was changeless as he locked optics with Wheeljack through the prison bars, glowing pupils not even so much as shifting.

"No." Starscream's eventual reply was simple and emotionless. There was no snide attitude or sense of victory in his voice. It was merely a stated fact spoken with simple honesty.

"You're not going to have much of a choice, I think," Wheeljack said.

"Do you really expect I would help you so easily, Wheeljack? We may share common enemies now, but you are by no means my friend."

"Doesn't matter," Wheeljack replied. "You'll do it because I'm telling you to do it."

The Decepticon sneered. "Do you think you can convince me that easily? Or scare me? I'm not like your little human. I'm not that weak."

Starscream's gloating cut off suddenly as the bars to the cage disappeared, with a quick key stroke from Wheeljack on the control module he'd downloaded on loan from Prowl. _Stolen_ was probably more accurate, but Prowl would never notice the unauthorized access at his personal terminal given Wheeljack's stealthy wipe of the secondary trace drive.

For a moment Starscream didn't move, stunned at his new-found freedom as his eyes went wide. The Decepticon's previous bravado was washed away as Wheeljack purposefully stepped into the cell causing the Decepticon to step back with sudden uncertainty. Without giving Starscream time to grow comfortable with this new scenario Wheeljack grabbed him by the head and yanked him forward, causing the Decepticon to snarl with a mixture of surprise and rage. The struggle was short live as Wheeljack produced his own wild card from a waiting side compartment, slamming his palm hard against Starscream's neck.

When he let go the Decepticon immediately stumbled away from him against the back wall to create distance, a glowing hatred in his widened optics as he pawed at the newly added silver module on his neck. It was stuck tight, and wasn't about to budge, but Wheeljack wanted to let Starscream figure that out for himself.

"What did you—?" Starscream tried to sputter, but he was cut off as a series of small metal panels unfolded rapidly from the silver module, shifting around and forming a cylindrical collar around his neck before he could properly react. Starscream tugged and pulled at it, flailing like a panicked animal as he tried to rip the foreign object from around his neck.

"I call it the Immobilizer" Wheeljack said, with oddly place pride as he watched the Decepticon squirm. He lifted his arm and waved it in front of the Starscream's face, revealing a makeshift control mechanism that had been outfitted straight into his arm-complete with a shiny, red button. "It—"

"It immobilizes me, I get the picture," Starscream snarled, hitting the back wall heavily as he gave up his struggles, long fingers wrapped around the collar as if it would protect him. "Clearly your intellect doesn't pass on to your imagination when it comes to naming conventions."

"Now you're just being rude," Wheeljack huffed indifferently.

"How exactly is this going to encourage me to help you?" Starscream asked, still tugging at the collar. "I'm of no use to you if I can't move."

"Well clearly you can move...so just call this _insurance_. Try to take off and fly away and you'll be knocked back down before you even know what's happened. Try to attack me, or anyone that I don't want and you'll be flat on your back with more energized energon ripping through you than you ever thought was possible. It'll put your own Decepticon interrogation methods to shame. Simple but effective."

The Decepticon glared at Wheeljack, face unreadable. "I have a high pain threshold, Wheeljack. You can shock me all you like, but I'm not about to help you find Allison."

"You will," Wheeljack said. "Unless you want to be still in this place when it all comes down."

Starscream frowned. "What do you mean?"

"We're moving. We've been compromised, and we sure as Primus aren't sticking around. But the other bots don't much care what happens to you. Since we're blowing this place sky high when we're done with it, no one is going to be remiss if they accidentally leave a few things behind."

"You wouldn't dare," Starscream snarled, but his face betrayed his sudden fear. Wheeljack immediately knew he had the Decepticon where he needed him. Starscream's knack for self-preservation above all else was what he was counting on.

"How long have you known me, Starscream? How many places have I demolished?" Wheeljack's optics narrowed in challenge.

"They were all in the name of science. This is different."

"Call this an experiment. I personally like '_Observation of the Decepticon Mindset And Their Ability To Make Good Decisions When Faced With Certain Explosion.'" _Wheeljack shrugged. "It's a working title."

Starscream looked above him as if he was appraising the very roof over his head. Eventually he seemed to reach a decision.

"It seems as if this time you win, Autobot, but don't rely on me to be very helpful. I will come with you Wheeljack, but I won't cooperate." Starscream hissed, voice low and aggravated with his lack of options.

"I think you will, eventually. Still, I suppose we'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

There would be no trusting the Decepticon, and even then Wheeljack knew that ultimately Starscream had ulterior motives for obliging him. The inhibitor collar would hold him for the time being, but eventually the Decepticon would figure out that the magnetized lock wasn't going to hold forever. It would last as long as needed for Wheeljack to do what needed to be done, and that was all that mattered. He would figure out what to do with the Decepticon later. He didn't entirely have this entire plan written out on paper, and really he was flying by the aft with only an ultimate goal to shoot for. Things could go so horribly, horribly wrong, but as long as the Decepticon got him where he needed to be he figured he could always shoot him if things went south. He wasn't about to _arm_ the Decepticon; he wasn't that stupid, and he wasn't about to care if the Starscream came out of this alive or not.


	21. Dark Motivator

**Short chapter today as I'm currently very involved in saving the galaxy from the Reapers... so very, very busy...Mass Effect 3 is just far too demanding and I can't resist. I'm probably indoctrinated.**

**Some words of caution, but there's some torture in this chapter of the Cybertronian kind. **

**(c)Hasbro/Takara**

* * *

><p>Allison struggled in vain to free herself as Knock Out carried her from one dim chamber to another, all linked by long, seemingly endless halls. The one they walked through now stretched into oblivion before her. She had no idea where she was, but she could clearly feel a gentle downward slope, indicating they were traveling underground. She thought she could see what looked like a natural rock face curving up on both sides of her, but there was also piping and wires woven in. Every now and then, the shimmer of something faint caught her eyes, but it was gone before she could see it clearly.<p>

"What's going on? Where are you taking me?" She rasped, the grip around her body constricting her airways making it hard to speak.

"Into the bowels, as_ former _Lord Starscream liked to put it. To be perfectly honest with you, it's just a glorified basement." Knock Out's tone was disturbingly conversational, like how one might talk happily to an old friend. It was clear he was disgusted by humans, but he also harbored a frightening fascination with them. Interacting with them was one thing, but studying them was another.

"This whole place was an abandoned mine, you see. The former humans left decades ago. They thought they had mined it dry of resources. If only they'd dug just a little deeper; they'd have stumbled across something far more valuable than coal." Knock Out had stopped, and was scratching at the wall with one of his fingers. Some of the rock scraped away, leaving a small indent. The Decepticon held Allison close to the wall, and she could see what looked like some kind of sticky residue. At first she had no clue what it might be, but then she recognized the pinkish color.

"You're mining energon?" Allison asked, in disbelief. Wheeljack had never mentioned anything like that to her, though it occurred to her it was likely the Autobots didn't know about it. "How is that possible? I thought that was something unique to Cybertron..."

"Did you think that our ships were the first ones to ever visit your tiny little planet? This planet has always been a valuable outpost, and was visited by Cybertronians many times long before we ever came here. Some things inevitably get left behind, and it appears the energon stores the Decepticons hid away have flourished beneath your planet's terrain. A rather unexpected-yet extremely useful-discovery." Knock Out said, explaining exuberantly. "Besides, why else do you think there would have been a space bridge in your solar system? It wasn't entirely random that we happened to crash on your specific planet. It's just that it wasn't exactly _planned_ either."

"Then why do you need the Pendulum...and Wheeljack? If you guys had known all along where earth was and had been here before, you should know how to get back to Cybertron," Allison ventured, feeling like all her preconceived notions were now completely false. She'd thought they'd needed the Pendulum to contact their planet, because it was the only source of the known coordinates in relation to earth currently in existence. If they'd had a space bridge in the solar system and had been to earth before, hadn't they always known?

"I'm afraid it's not quite that glamorous. When our ship crashed, our navigational systems were destroyed past the point of recovery, and I can only assume the same was true for the Autobots." Knock Out cast a gaze down at Allison, as if waiting to seen if she might confirm his thoughts. When she didn't react, he continued. "Without that, there was no way we could open up the appropriate channel to contact Cybertron, and they could not contact us without our working equipment. The Pendulum, it seems, is the first piece of earth technology that has had that ability, which is why we need it."

Knock Out ducked under a low beam, then turned a corner, walking down a steep incline. "So we will build a new _navigational system_," he continued. "The energon mine here is the most logical place to put it, as it provides an immediate power source."

The tunnel grew a little darker, but Allison refused to close her eyes, trying desperately for her eyes to adjust. She was struggling enough just to keep up with all the information Knock Out was throwing at her. It didn't help that, unlike Wheeljack's modest pride in his work, Knock Out was unashamedly boasting about the Decepticon's ability to wreak havoc across the cosmos.

"Let me guess, you won't tell me what that plan is?"

"On the contrary, I'm sure everything will be revealed to you before you die." Allison was again disturbed at how casually Knock Out chatted about her demise.

"Is that really all I am to you: a scientific amusement? Don't you care that I might have family or loved ones?" Allison shuddered.

"Not really, no. The word 'family' has absolutely no meaning to us." Knock Out said dismissively.

"Maybe just to you it doesn't. The Autobots are a family. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe are a family..." Allison wished she hadn't spoken those words, regretting that she might have let something slip that the Decepticon could use against Sunstreaker. Knock Out only seemed to laugh at this, however.

"Those two are an anomaly. They're mutants, both of them, and I should very much love to crack them open someday too; take a good close look at their sparks and see what wonderful mutation caused their delirious symptoms."

"You're grotesque," Allison said, feeling disgusted, and a little bit sad for the twins. Surely they deserved more respect then that.

"So I'm told." Knock Out eyed her as he continued down the long hallway. "Besides, human, last time I checked our reports state that you have no family. You were the only offspring of those that created you, and now they are gone. There are no friends that will miss you either, so I highly doubt anyone will even notice that you're gone." Allison was surprised at how much this stung. "Even Wheeljack will eventually forget all about you and move on. Remember, he is _very_ old, and you so very, _very_ insignificant. I suppose that's disappointing, but if it's any consolation, you won't be around much longer to endure the painful thing you call a life."

The way he talked down about the way humans lived their lives almost made it seem like Knock Out saw them as some kind of lame animal that deserved euthanizing. Allison did not dare let the hurt show on her face, knowing far too well that weakness would only be used against her. Instead, she focused on keeping her face as neutral as possible as they rounded another corner and turned into a large, dimly lit chamber.

The first thing that was immediately noticeable was Sunstreaker, and seeing him there made her gape in horrified disbelief. At first she thought he was standing up against the far wall, but as she neared him she realized that he was actually chained to the wall; dual bounds holding his arms aloft on either side as he sagged limply against them, barely standing upright. Already he looked beaten, with fresh dents and marring scuffs on his otherwise vibrantly yellow armor. She half imagined that he'd been dragged carelessly across the stone floor to the room they were now in, the symmetrical scratches darkening his surface made all the more noticeable by the bright pink color of the fluid that was leaking from broken seams.

Beside Sunstreaker stood his interrogator, and when Allison saw the obvious size difference between the two Cybertronians it was immediately obvious that one had the unfair advantage. Sunstreaker may have been unpredictable and physically aggressive up to this point, but Breakdown was nearly two heads taller than him, and Sunstreaker was already massive enough from Allison's perspective. To make matters worse, Sunstreaker had already been wounded. The whole scene made her think of a pit bull beating down a battered chihuahua caught in a trap. In this circumstance, Sunstreaker would not have had a chance to fight off the abuse that Allison thought she was better off having missed.

Breakdown was flexing his knuckles anxiously, while he fidgeted with an eagerness that was obviously born out of a desire to inflict even more harm than he clearly had. He was standing close to the Autobot with his back turned to her and Knock Out as they entered the room. Muttered, grumbling words passed between them out of her earshot, and when it was clear Sunstreaker wasn't going to respond, the Decepticon pounded his huge, boxy fist into the Autobot's chest. There was a massive crunch as Sunstreaker convulsed, and his chest plates crumpled beneath the impact. The Autobot let out a noise that could only be described as _inhuman_, but there was no mistaking that it harbored a great deal of pain.

"You work fast," Knock Out chuckled brightly, and Allison could only be disgusted in knowing she was probably the only one who cared about Sunstreaker's suffering.

"Couldn't wait to get him up. Fragger mouthed off all the way down here. Thought he could use a lesson in humility." Breakdown admitted. "But he's breaking so easily, I can't see this lasting long, and I'm not in the mood to hold back on him."

"By all means, don't let us stop you," Knock Out said. "Maybe this will loosen his vocalizer a bit." Knock Out held Allison aloft. She let out an involuntary yelp as the Decepticon tossed her to the side like he was throwing away a rag. Her body hit something hard, and she rolled to a stop along a smooth surface—some sort of raised table. _Probably where they put their instruments of encouragement,_ she thought through a hazy, pain-filled wheeze. Allison barely heard that Knock Out was still talking.

"Soundwave seems to think so, but do try and keep her intact. It would be a shame to have all those delicate parts damaged before I can get my scalpels into her."

This comment spurred action into her, and Allison managed to sit up, her eyes traveling between the Decepticon next to her, and Sunstreaker who had so far not moved. His face was down, the weakened glow of his eyes just barely visible against the contrasting plates of his face.

All she could do was watch tragically as Knock Out sauntered over to Breakdown and pulled something out from his back. It looked like the same two-pronged spear that she knew had the ability to create some sort of electrical charge, and it became painfully obvious what it was going to be used for.

"Please... don't hurt him..." She pleaded, voice all but a whisper. The two Decepticons turned to her with equally amused faces, and Allison knew that begging was going to be pointless.

"Look, I think she wants us to stop," Breakdown said with a gruff chuckle, taking the spear from Knock Out without hesitation. "Hear that, Autobot? She wants us to stop." Breakdown tapped Sunstreaker's chest with the dull end of the weapon he was holding, and the Autobot lifted his head slowly. Sunstreaker's expression was still one of contempt, but he looked as if he was struggling to keep up the facade, his eyes pale in the darkness. The Autobot looked at her, but he did not move.

"You're wasting your time. He doesn't care about me," Allison said acidly, surprised at her own admission. She hoped that maybe it would deter them from hurting him any further, but part of her knew that was wishful thinking.

Despite everything he had done, she was finding it hard to convince herself that those words were true. He had come for her after all. Some part of him must have cared, even a little. Maybe he didn't favor humanity quite as much as Optimus Prime did, but he wouldn't have spent so much time and energy trying to protect her if he'd hated her as much as he let on. Allison was afraid that the Decepticons knew this, and she wanted to convince them otherwise.

"We shall see," Knock Out said. He directed his attention back at Sunstreaker. "Autobot, tell us where you're friends are going and you can end all of this. The human will die a quick death, I can promise you that."

"Frag off..." Sunstreaker muttered, weakly. Clearly mustering the energy for verbal slagging was not yet out of his reach.

"A shame," Knock Out frowned. He stepped back and nodded to Breakdown, who grunted in affirmation. All at once the pronged end of the spear came alive with crackling electricity as Breakdown swung it around, letting it hover near Sunstreaker's face.

"Stop it..." Allison begged, but she was ignored.

Breakdown lowered the prod and jammed it into the vulnerable cabled section just between Sunstreaker's main chassis and waist, and the most horrific light show ensued as the Autobot was overcome with electricity. He screamed, somehow finding new strength in his voice which was barely audible over the snapping arms of light that pulled at his body. Allison couldn't bear to watch Sunstreaker seize uncontrollably as the electricity ripped through him, tearing at every pain sensor he had. She buried her head in her hands in helpless frustration, not able to witness such a sight any longer. He didn't deserve that.

Finally, there was a merciful silence as Breakdown stood back to admire his handiwork. Sunstreaker shuddered and fell limp as the last remnants of living light dissipated from his beaten form, and for a moment Allison feared that he truly was dead when she dared to look up. Her fiercely beating heart lifted when Sunstreaker groaned.

"Is... that all you got... 'Con?" Sunstreaker lifted his head weakly, eyes re-ignited with internal fire as he cast a spiteful glare at the Decepticons in front of him. She found a new respect for the Autobot then that she couldn't ignore, but she silently hoped that his mouth wasn't going to end him right then and there. For only a moment Breakdown and Knock Out looked taken aback as they stared right back at their quarry, before Breakdown turned to Knock Out with an indifferent shrug.

"Guess he's not such a runt after all," Breakdown said, cracking his knuckles idly.

Knock Out folded his arms, walking around the battered form of Sunstreaker. He almost seemed to be appraising him, his eyes observing his hostage with keen interest.

"I've read your file, Sunstreaker." The Decepticon sounded so casual, almost like an employer interviewing someone for a job. "You're an interesting case. You're impudent, your brash, you don't follow orders very well, and you're so _full_ of contempt. It's a wonder you wear that symbol so willingly. Right now, from where I'm looking, it's really the only thing that tells me where your allegiance stands, and even that's starting to look a little fuzzy from here."

Knock Out walked over to where a drone was standing guard, and sneered at it. "Look at them. No sense of pride, no sense of self-worth, no _style_. They're happy to remain where they are; nameless and expendable. But you..."

"Get... to the point. I'm getting...bored here," Sunstreaker managed between gasps.

Knock Out smiled evilly at him. "You came from a place not so different. Alone, discarded, unwanted. And look at you now. Well, _now_ might be a bad example, but you've proved to be thus far about as plain and indistinguishable as a firecracker. I'm really rather envious." His expression took one of confusion as he tapped his chin with a finger. "But I can't help but wonder why someone like_ you _would choose _them_ over _us_ when we're so very much alike."

Sunstreaker coughed. "…Nothing alike. Not… interested in bots like me. You want _them_..." Sunstreaker's gaze turned weakly to the silent Decepticon soldier standing near Knock Out. "…Tear down others. That's what you do best."

Knock Out laughed loudly, stepping forward again towards the beaten Autobot. "And you don't? Sunstreaker, you've pushed away everyone who's ever tried to help you. You stepped on everyone around you just to survive, and you've put others in danger just to satisfy your own warped perspective on life. You _are_ a Decepticon, at least inside that twisted little spark of yours." Knock Out idly tapped his fingers against his folded arms. "You know, I could spare you all this pointless agony."

"Why would we want to do that?" Breakdown asked, humorously.

"I'm just giving him an option, Breakdown. It's an offer I'm not willing to offer more than once, but I do believe it's in our prospective brother's best interest. He has information that could be of great use to us. It'd be a shame if we had to pry it out of him when he could simply tell us and join in the game."

"He better, for his sake," Breakdown grunted in disbelief. "I'm not sure how much of this he can handle."

There was a pregnant pause as if they were waiting for Sunstreaker's answer. Allison couldn't believe what she was hearing, and that they were actually asking Sunstreaker to join their side. Part of her, admittedly, wasn't entirely sure that he _wouldn't_... She was already of little use, and if Sunstreaker decided to join them they'd have even less of an incentive to keep her alive.

"Already told you..._frag off_..." Sunstreaker choked, finally breaking the expectant silence. Allison bowed her head and let out a silent, but long, sigh of relief. The Decepticons, however, seemed unsurprised, and Knock Out gave an exuberant shrug.

"Well, you can't say I didn't try. This would be so much easier if Soundwave would just do what's needed and be done with it, I'll give you that, Breakdown," Knock Out said dismissively, and Allison knew all too well what he was referring too. Part of her wondered too, why Soundwave didn't just take the information from Sunstreaker psychically... if anything it would have saved them the trouble.

"Sometimes I think you have something against fun, Knock Out," Breakdown said with a sarcastic frown.

They both simultaneously turned their heads in Allison's direction, eyes aglow with sinister pleasure as if just remembering that she had been there in the first place. She took a step back, not liking where this was headed.

"Maybe this one just needs a little encouragement." Breakdown advanced towards Allison, but all she could do was take more useless steps in the opposite direction. There was nothing for her to hide behind; she was in the open and vulnerable, and she doubted she'd survive any sort of physical beating from such a massive robot, even if he _did_ hold back. Even less she knew she wouldn't live through an electrocution from the spear Breakdown was swinging so casually.

"Nooo..." The whispered gasp had come from Sunstreaker, and this made Breakdown stop with a wry smirk on his face. Allison exhaled, finding it hard to be relieved over a temporary distraction considering the faces of the Decepticons in the room. This must have been the desired effect, as both of them seemed smugly pleased at the reaction, but it wasn't enough. Sunstreaker didn't even have the strength to lift his head.

"She...doesn't know anything. She's just a...stupid human."

"Stupid isn't the word," Knock Out muttered to Breakdown. "These humans really are incredibly dense."

"I think it's cute," Breakdown joked. "I think he's protecting her."

"Couldn't...care...less," Sunstreaker murmured. "Just... let her go..." Sunstreaker had looked at her before, but this time when his eyes hit her it was perhaps the first time that there appeared to be any conscious realization on his part that she was there. His expression may have been indecipherable to the Decepticons surrounding them, and he probably even thought he was hiding it from her, but he was failing at it. He looked ashamed, maybe even felt guilty but none of that really mattered more than the fact that Allison knew he was trying to save her.

Now, it felt like being angry over being put in that train car was just petty and wrong. It seemed so pointless compared to the defeat she now saw in front of her. Sunstreaker was trying to appear emotionless, but he wasn't very good at it. Pain tended to do that to a person.

It was too bad it would be in vain, because she knew Knock Out was going to kill her anyway as soon as he got her alone.

"No," Allison interrupted. "Let him go. You can do what you want with me. He's right... I'm just a human, but you _need_ me if it's Wheeljack you want... You don't need him. He's a Cybertronian, one of yours; A proud, ancient warrior. He deserves some dignity."

Knock Out laughed loudly. "Oh, this is rich indeed. That's very noble of you, Allison, but you know nothing of our race." He walked towards Sunstreaker and took the Autobot's face in his hand, pulling it towards him roughly. Sunstreaker's eyes narrowed, but he made no effort to pull away, perhaps not having the strength to.

"This one is but a spoiled adolescent." Knock Out looked sideways at Allison, letting Sunstreaker's face go as the Autobot's head went limp. "Now that I think about it, he's very much like you. Once he's gone, no one will mourn his passing. How fitting that the two of you are destined to die together. Maybe it's fate, if you believe in that sort of thing. Personally I think it's all one happy coincidence."

"_Happy_ isn't the term I would use," Allison said.

"Knock Out..." Sunstreaker coughed, which changed into strained laughter as a weak smile appeared on his face. "You talk too much..."

Knock Out turned to Sunstreaker with an infuriated snarl, lifting his hand to strike him across the face. He stopped as high-pitched droning began to wail over unseen speakers, and it took a moment for Allison to realize that she was hearing some kind of alarm. It took the Decepticons the same amount of time to react to what was happening, more likely not expecting it at all, but they both stopped in their tracks. A nearby monitor buzzed to life, and the faceless visage of Soundwave appeared. The two Decepticons looked at it, and Knock Out acknowledged the call with a frown.

"Soundwave. Let me guess, you've decided to come spoil our fun yet again?"

"Priority One. Proximity alarm engaged. Perimeter has been breached." The monitor turned off abruptly as Soundwave cut the signal.

Breakdown looked at Knock Out. "More Autobots?" he asked.

"Who else would it be?" Knock Out replied. He turned to Allison and sighed, before immediately reaching out and plucking her off her perch without giving her time to prepare for his approach. The startled yelp that left her throat was the only sound she could manage as his hand tightened around her, taking her away.

One last look at Sunstreaker told her that he had finally lost consciousness, or intentionally shut himself down. His eyes were closed and darkened, and Allison hoped he had found some kind of escape from his turmoil. At least for the moment, he was free, and that was her only uplifting thought as she was carried from the room.

No amount of struggling over the continued blare of the alarm amounted to anything as they hurried down the corridor, Breakdown just ahead of Knock Out as they traveled closer to what Allison had assumed was some sort of communication center and infirmary mixed into one given the decor. They were passed by small groups of the same, almost faceless drones who turned and looked at their superiors with detached interest. Allison would have felt sorry for them, the way they seemed to be regarded as disposable troops, if she didn't currently fear her own death. She knew with conviction that Knock Out intended to take her somewhere and kill her, so all she could do was struggle, useless as it was proving to be.

Breakdown continued down the corridor with a small group of drone troops when Knock Out veered sharply to the right, taking Allison exactly where she expected to go. She intensified her struggles as they entered the communication chamber, and Knock Out walked in with devious purpose as he made a beeline straight for the raised table she had been so carelessly dumped on before.

Allison was surprised to find that they were not alone in the room, as the familiar silhouette of Soundwave stood in front of the monitor against the far wall that Knock Out had been standing at when she had first been brought in. He turned when they approached, and his glowing visor regarded them with what might have been surprise as Allison found herself slammed down against the metal surface of the table.

"Explanation required. Priority One: Secure space bridge." Soundwave's voice was the same passionless monotone that Allison remembered well. To her dismay, Knock Out did not so much as look at Soundwave, all of his attention focused solely on her.

"Yes, yes, I know all about that. The space bridge is secure." Knock Out said with detachment. Allison could not have found any of this interesting even if she'd wanted to. She was too busy trying to peel robotic fingers off of her body and breathe at the same time. It was hard to focus with glowing red eyes looking her up and down, like they were examining a piece of meat for the right place to cut. Allison was finding that she was quickly losing, her body starting to go slack with the injuries she had sustained and exhaustive attempts to struggle against impossible strength.

It _had_ to be the Autobots... there was nobody else it could be. Surely Fowler wouldn't send human military after her... She thought she had seen Knock Out talking to Optimus Prime and Wheeljack on the monitor Soundwave now stood at, but the image had disappeared so quickly for her to be sure. They couldn't possible have arrived yet, unless it was someone else…

Her useless flailing had the opposite of its desired effect, and Knock Out's face erupted into one of delicious enthusiasm as his other hand hovered dangerously close to her face. There was a soft clicking of moving parts as pieces of his arm shifted and unfolded, followed by the delicate _shink _of a needle emerging from his arm as it traveled mere inches from her neck. An exhausted whimper was all she could manage as her strength gave out, and she went limp against the table.

"I was hoping to not have to do this the easy way... but I guess time is a factor now, and I need you to be still..." Knock Out crooned, bringing the needle ever closer as Allison cried in defeat. It was all over.

Something made Allison jump, and it took her a moment to realize that Knock Out's arm had been forced backwards with a loud _clack_ of metal hitting metal. She only barely recognized that Soundwave had silently moved next to them, pulling Knock Out away by grabbing his arm with a clear expression of command in his single, visor-like eye.

"No."

"Soundwave, please! I'm about to perform delicate surgery here. These humans are so small and they break so easily."

Soundwave did not remove his hand from Knock Out's arm, remaining stoic and emotionless. He stared at Knock Out for a good few seconds as Allison looked between them in her own startled confusion, and eventually Knock Out's gaze broke.

"Alright, fine. If you really think this must wait..." Knock Out said with a deep huff, turning to gaze down at Allison with a lop-sided smile. "I'm stepping out of the room for a moment. Don't go anywhere."

Knock Out pressed a button somewhere underneath the table, and Allison felt the metal around her shift. The slab seemed to almost mold around her, and she sank into the metal, solid straps slinking their way over her to keep her wedged in place. She couldn't move her arms or her legs as they were pinned to the surface. Even as Knock Out leered close to her face, she couldn't react more than simply stare back.

"I know, the wait must be killing you." Knock Out hissed, then spun around and walked towards the door, stopping only long enough to give Soundwave an irritated glare before leaving. Allison saw Soundwave stare at her for a few seconds, his expressionless face unreadable before he too left.

Allison tried to control her breathing as she allowed herself a brief moment to comprehend what had just happened. She knew Soundwave wasn't being benevolent, as there was clearly something very important going on that she wasn't aware of; something needed to be defended. His timing was just rather merciful. Regardless, it meant nothing to her, because if she died on this table any information that she had that could potentially help the Autobots would be useless.

Instead, she set to work on trying to find a way to wriggle her way out of the metal straps, trying to find a way to slide her body out from under them or find a way to get one of her arms free. It didn't matter how hard she tried, as the straps only seemed to tighten around her as she moved. In a way they seemed malleable, as she assumed they were probably meant for larger bodies of varying types; able to adapt to whatever frame and shape they needed seeing as not every Cybertronian was the same size with the same build. The fact that they could also adjust small enough to hold a human down was just the terrible icing on the terrible, terrible cake.

Despite any malleability they may have had, they were solid, and if they were solid enough to keep a full-grown Cybertronian down then she had no possible way of breaking them. This didn't deter her, and as she stared up at the ceiling she continued her frustrated attempts to squeeze her way out. Only the repetitive, crying alarm kept her company. If she gave up, she was going to die.


	22. Finding the Crash

**A/N: Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I've had a ton of crap going on that demanded my attention first, but hopefully I should be back to a regularly updated schedule.**

**As usual, I don't own any of these characters. They belong to Hasbro.**

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><p>Bumblebee and Sideswipe had left the city of Minneapolis behind, and they sped along the road towards the source of the phone call Agent Fowler had received about an hour prior; the last known location of Allison and Sunstreaker before the phone call had been cut off.<p>

The road curved around with a sharp drop to one side, and a road barrier was the only thing between them and a steep fall. Bumblebee's senses were more concentrated on what he knew was approaching, and his thoughts were grim. Inside him, Sari sat in the driver's seat, anxiously keeping her own eyes peeled for any signs of the crashed vehicle.

Sideswipe had been mostly quiet throughout the journey, and Bumblebee had decided not to press him. Instead he'd tried to make idle conversation with Sari, and while normally the girl was more than happy to chat, right now she was quiet; probably feeling the weight of everything falling down around them. Bumblebee was starting to thoroughly regret not listening to Optimus Prime and taking her home, because they were heading straight into a hornet's nest. Right now though, he had to divide his attention between the task at hand, and keeping her safe.

The Autobots followed the curve as it slowly rounded a line of trees, and Bumblebee braked as they came across what was obviously the impact point of a vehicle crash.

The barrier there had a gaping hole clean through it as it was clear that something massive had torn it open, the ends of either side twisted and bent outwards. Metal and glass were strewn about, leaving a trail that led directly over the edge and down the small cliff. Bumblebee transformed, placing Sari on the ground carefully, and approached the spot. Sideswipe followed close behind, and the three of them carefully looked over the aftermath of the attack. Tire marks on the ground were the last marker on the trail that led straight over the edge

"Primus," Bumblebee cursed, looking over the side and down into the ravine, where the remains of a black sedan rested in a mangled heap of broken glass and metal. "It's a wonder they even survived the impact."

"It looks like it hit the ground there," Sideswipe muttered, pointing down at the ground. The point where the car had hit the ground was littered with bits of metal shrapnel, glass and rubber. Half of the car's front fender was tossed aside, having been ripped clean off as what remained of the hood was bent inwards in a horrific "V" shape. The vehicle looked like it had been grabbed mid-run and practically forced through the barrier. The rock below showed signs of where the vehicle had rolled down it, glass and scuffed paint leaving a trail to the depths below.

"But… the car is over there…" Bumblebee said, following the trail some distance away where the car in question had come to its final resting place on its roof. "Meaning someone moved it."

"Or threw it," Sideswipe added, noting the force that must have been involved.

"Right," Bumblebee agreed, frustrated. He turned to Sari. "You had better stay here. It's... not good for you to be down there." He said as he turned to look down at the girl, who had an indecipherable look on her face. "Yell if you see or hear anyone coming. Chances are, the Decepticons are long gone, but if you see _anything_ at all, then you hide, got that? No heroics._" _

"I got it, Bee. Besides, what could I possibly do to fight them?"

"You could bite their ankles I suppose. You _are _short enough." Bumblebee said, trying to ignore his own bad mood by forcing a joke, pathetic as it might be.

"I am not!" Sari argued, suddenly perked. "I'm almost as tall as Allison, and she's an adult!" Sari stopped, realizing that mentioning Allison wasn't the best thing to do at that moment, considering the likelihood they were going to show up at the Decepticon base just to pick up a few corpses. Sari quieted, and looked down soberly as she folded her arms. "Stay out of sight. I got it."

Bumblebee turned to Sideswipe and nodded, the lightened mood evaporated with the Autobot's grim expression. Together they hopped over the edge of the cliff, skidding effortlessly down its sloped side, leaving Sari behind.

The two Autobots hit the bottom of the hill and instantly took stock of the area, weapons drawn to be prepared for anything should any Decepticons have been left behind. When they were satisfied nothing was around, they hurried over to where the vehicle had come to rest. Bumblebee knelt down and looked inside it, bracing himself for what he was about to find. Aside from blood on the steering wheel, broken glass and a horrible feeling, there was nothing of any use.

"Bee, come over here." Sideswipe's voice rang out somewhere behind the yellow Autobot. Bumblebee stood up and turned to see Sideswipe standing a few feet away. He was looking down at a twisted shape on the ground. "I think it's Fowler's agent."

The human was lying on the ground in a broken heap, one arm stretched out and the other folded up underneath him. One of his legs looked like it had been crushed by something heavy, most likely stepped on. His face was buried in the dirt, but Bumblebee didn't need a degree in human physiology to figure out his neck had clearly been snapped. Bumblebee felt his intakes shutter at the sight. Human death was never an easy thing to see, and unfortunately he had seen much of it. They were too fragile, and had no place being in the middle of their conflict...

"Poor fragger never had a chance," Sideswipe mumbled, optics cast down with perhaps the same thought on his mind. This was what separated them from the Decepticons. They _felt._

Bumblebee sighed, his tone heavy with the grief he was trying to hide. He looked around quickly for something to cover the human's body with, knowing it was the only thing they could do for Fowler's agent now. It was customary even for Cybertronian's to cover their dead, so it felt appropriate to offer the human the same respect, knowing it was a human habit as well.

"Come on, we need to keep searching. The signal didn't come from here, but it's close."

"Do you really think she managed to run away from them?" Sideswipe asked idly, trying to bring something optimistic to the table in the circumstances they now faced. Bumblebee shrugged, finally finding some kind of emergency tarp that had spilled out of the car's crushed trunk.

"Humans are small. Maybe she managed to scurry away through the trees before they could get to her..." Bumblebee said, covering the agent's body with the frayed, dirty tarp. It wasn't quite the gesture he had wanted, but at least the body was now covered from the elements... and the optics. "Or maybe she had help." Bumblebee added as he finally managed to look around. He pointed to piles of dirt and grass that had clearly been thrown into the air.

"There was a fight here." Sideswipe added, finishing Bumblebee's thoughts as he stepped further out into the clearing and looked around.

"Look, you can see the scuff marks in the ground. There's more than one type of footprint too," Bumblebee said, pointing to some nearby trees that had been uprooted. "And the car didn't do that; they're much too far away, and they look like they've been completely uprooted, not just snapped."

"You're thinking it was Sunstreaker?"

"Who else would it be? Fowler said that Allison was being tailed by Sunstreaker. At least, that was the impression he got over the phone."

"He was supposed to bring her home... I don't get it. Why would he just follow her? That doesn't make sense..." Sideswipe said in a rush, clearly rattled from the effort to make sense of what his brother had done. He had been upset and somewhat scatter-brained from the moment Sunstreaker had taken off, but Bumblebee didn't think he would be any different in the same situation. He let Sideswipe carry on with his pacing, looking for the right thing to say to bring reason, rather than sounding accusatory.

"I couldn't hazard a guess. Maybe something happened when he did reach her. Maybe he didn't-couldn't-reveal himself because the Decepticons were already following her. I'm not going to work on any assumptions until we find them, and you shouldn't either. I don't think Sunstreaker was the reason they went off the road if that's what you're thinking." Bumblebee said, trying to sound supportive. "Your brother was doing the right thing, Sideswipe. And I think this fight was him trying to protect her and the agent."

Sideswipe gave him a sidelong look, and they exchanged the wordless agreement that the agent hadn't benefited from that arrangement, but nothing could change that now.

The red Autobot's eyes brightened, spirit a bit more optimistic as they continued with their search. Bumblebee walked towards the nearest tree line, following what he hoped were tiny human prints in the dirt. They were barely visible, but he was able to make out subtle variations in the texture of the grass; bent blades and scuffed clumps that indicated the passage of a human. He stopped when he reached the first line of trees, and knelt down.

"She went that way," Bumblebee said, pointing.

"Into the forest? She could be anywhere. She could be up a tree for all we know, or eaten by an Insecticon…"

"Earth doesn't have Insecticons," Bumblebee said with a frown. "Why? Are you afraid?"

"No..." Sideswipe said, standing up a little straighter as his optics narrowed defensively. "I'm just saying, who knows what could have grabbed her?"

"Whatever's in there can't be any worse than a Decepticon. Besides, I don't think she had much of a choice." Bumblebee started walking back the way they had come. "Come on, we better get a move on. Wait here." Bumblebee headed back up to the top of the cliff, climbing up a part of the rock wall that wasn't quite so steep. He found Sari poking around in the bushes beside the road. She stopped when she saw the yellow Autobot approach.

"Did you find her?" she asked, not looking very hopeful.

"No," Bumblebee admitted. "We didn't find her. I'm sorry." Sari's head tilted down in disappointment, and Bumblebee spoke up quickly. "But we did find a potential trail..."

Sari perked up at the news. "I want to come."

"We need to head into the forest, and we don't know what's wandering around in there, so I need you to do what I tell you. This isn't a joke." Bumblebee said with some concern, trying hard not to sound like her father. Sari made a face at him, much like she always did, but the difference this time was that she did not complain. She only nodded in silence, understanding that now was not the best time to be messing around.

Bumblebee lowered his hand for her to climb on, and the Autobot put the young girl up onto his shoulder. "Hold on..." he warned her as he felt her settle between the armor plates of his shoulder and his head. He hopped back over the side of the cliff, taking a little more care as they slid down together. Sideswipe was waiting for them, his weight shifted to one leg as he idled, looking impatient.

"Oh," Sari remarked quietly as the wreckage of the downed car came into view. Bumblebee felt her tense on his shoulder, and he felt himself naturally tense in response.

"Look," Sideswipe said with a frustrated huff, drawing attention to the destruction. He pointed to broken trees and flattened grass. Many of the tree trunks were broken clean in two, leaving jagged, pointed strips of bark sticking up into the air like spikes. Entire rocks were visibly shifted, revealing the deep imprints they had left in the grass beneath them. Some of the larger boulders were cracked, smaller pebbles and shards of rock that had been broken littering the area around them.

"Sunstreaker had a tough fight on his hands," Bumblebee added for Sari's benefit. "There's energon readings all over the place."

They followed the trail of broken trees and other destroyed foliage. There was no sign of Allison, or any human for that matter, but eventually they came across a small stream, with an overpass high above it. Bumblebee was just barely small enough to pass beneath it unhindered, but Sideswipe had to bend down to walk through without scraping his helm on the top.

"Didn't Agent Fowler say something about a bridge?" Sideswipe asked, looking frustrated with the need to walk like he was doubled over. He walked past Bumblebee to the other side of the overpass and cleared it, standing straight with a relieved vent of air. Bumblebee remained underneath, looking at the ground beneath him, while Sari reached up to touch the top with outstretched fingers. Her fingers slid along the rough surface, releasing dust and debris as Bumblebee walked to a support pillar on the edge.

"Allison mentioned one the last time she talked to Fowler, just before she got cut off. Only problem is, I don't see her anywhere..." That could have been a good or bad thing, but at least there wasn't an immediate corpse lying around. His optics caught something on the ground, and he knelt down next to it just as Sari pointed downwards past his face.

"It's a phone!" Sari said exuberantly. It was expensive looking, with a shiny, black flip-top lid, but it had obviously seen better days. It had fallen between a couple of rocks, and looked scratched and dented. Sari hopped off of Bumblebee's shoulder and plucked it out of the crevice. She looked up at Bumblebee, who shook his head, indicating he wasn't sure what to do with it. Sari flipped open the lid, and it snapped off instantly. "Guess the hinges were broke," she mumbled. The screen was blank, so she tried powering it on, but it didn't respond. "I guess the power finally died too."

"I was afraid this was what we'd find," Bumblebee said, grimly. "I guess they grabbed her here."

"So what now?" Sari asked. "We're not going to give up now are we?" She sounded worried.

"No, we're going to keep looking. But we don't have much to go on." Bumblebee muttered, legitimately uncertain as to where to go with this next. "Let's head back and see if we missed anything at the car."

Sari clamored back onto Bumblebee's shoulder at his request, and they sprinted back to the site of the car wreckage with new urgency. When they got there, Sari started to squirm. Bumblebee noticed, and stopped moving, fearful that she would fall off.

"What's the matter, Sari?"

"I thought I saw a snake," Sari said with some disgust. "Glad I'm up here and not down there," She said with a huff, and Bumblebee frowned.

"A snake? But I'm not detecting any organic heat signatures around here..." Bumblebee said as he looked around, and Sari pointed downwards.

"Then what is _that?_" The girl asked, exasperated. Bumblebee followed her pointed finger onto the ground, but didn't immediately see anything moving. All he saw was what he had initially assumed to be pieces from the crashed vehicle. When nothing happened, and no reptiles slithered their way across the ground, Sari pulled back her hand. "Oh wait, maybe it's dead. It's not moving... ooh let me down!" She said, suddenly excited, and had already started climbing awkwardly down Bumblebee's front. Slightly panicking that she would fall, Bumblebee knelt down to help her to the ground.

Sari ran over to a spot on the forest floor, slightly covered over with leaves, and gave the ground a heavy kick. She cried out in surprise when she was met by a heavy _thunk_ as her foot hit metal, and something long, slender, and silver rolled forward from beneath its cover of leaves.

"That's not a snake!" Sari said with some surprise, but she stepped back, presumably as she got a good look at what she'd just kicked. It came to a heavy stop, limp on the ground, and for all intents and purposes did look like some kind of dead creature, if one had 5 clawed prongs for a mouth. Bumblebee recognized it instantly.

"How did we miss this? That's the head of one of Soundwave's probes," he said, suddenly feeling his hopes shattered. He bent down and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. There were remnants of yellow paint across the long, slender hooks. "Looks like someone tore it off, and I can name one Autobot that I'm pretty sure was the culprit." His circuits crawled just touching it.

"Soundwave has tentacles?" Sari asked, a little bewildered. "That's...gross."

"Soundwave primarily uses them for machine interfacing and data gathering. But he can also use them to immobilize and paralyze his victims." Bumblebee tossed the severed appendage onto the ground, disgusted. "This changes things. We should call this in."

Sideswipe nodded in assent and they joined their internal com link, attempting to hail Teletraan-1 to catch whoever had been left on the final monitor shift after Wheeljack's absence. Away from human forms of communication, there was nothing to interfere with their signal save for distance alone, but they weren't far enough out to make that a factor. They had been more concerned that the senior bots back at base would have been too busy to notice their attempts to contact them; although that was doubtful considering they had more than one major crisis on their hands.

"_Make this quick, we're about to leave." _Ratchet responded to their call with a grumble, typically bypassing any pleasantries.

"_Nice to hear your voice too, Ratchet," _Sideswipe quipped, joined in on the shared link.

"_You're late calling in. What's happening back there? Have you had any luck finding Allison?"_

"_Yes...and no," _reported Bumblebee._ "We've managed to find the crash site and the agent's broken phone, but I'm afraid it looks bad, Ratchet. The Decepticons have them."_

There was a pause on Ratchet's end, then finally, _"Fowler wants to know if his agent is there?"_

"_We found the agent's body, yes,"_ Bumblebee said. _"It looks like he was killed after the crash._ _We found something else,"_ Bumblebee added with some trepidation. _"Soundwave was here."_

"_Soundwave?"_ There was a ripple of alarm in Ratchet's voice. _"Did you actually see him?"_

"_No, but Sari found some rather disturbing evidence that he was here. I think he attacked Sunstreaker. I don't know about Allison though." _Sideswipe added, a frustrated anger buried deep within his voice.

Ratchet's voice turned grim. _"If Soundwave's involved, then things don't look very hopeful for her." _His tone changed suddenly, as if a thought had struck him._ "On the other hand, that information might prove useful. Soundwave never leaves a Decepticon station for extended periods of time. He almost always strikes locations close by, and only if he's really needed..." _Ratchet trailed off, sounding distracted as if he was occupied by something on his end.

"_He seemed to have no qualms with tearing up parts of Sealth," _Sideswipe said.

"_Sealth was an exception, because they were running out of time. They didn't even know what the Pendulum was and its location was unknown. This is different. This time, we're the ones who are scrambling. They can afford to be patient." _Ratchet had actually been in Sealth with Allison and Wheeljack, so they had to trust his judgment on this one.

"_If that's true, then that at least means there has to be a base nearby,"_ Bumblebee said, confirming it for himself.

Ratchet grunted in agreement. _"I've already done a scan for any anomalous energy readings in your area. You're _lucky_ Teletraan-1's scanner is still on, you're welcome by the way. I'm only picking up one, a couple of miles west of where you are now. It looks like an old human mine, but for some reason the energon readings are off the charts..."_

"_Great,"_ Sideswipe said, unenthusiastically.

"_I'd advise extreme caution,"_ Ratchet warned. _"This is likely just going to be a sub-base, so I doubt Megatron will be there. But if Soundwave is, then you need to be on your guard."_

"_You say that as if Soundwave is a challenge,"_ Sideswipe said, sounding highly unconvinced.

"_Do not under any circumstances underestimate Soundwave, Sideswipe."_ Ratchet replied, his voice low. _"He's not to be taken lightly. In fact, I highly recommend avoiding him at all costs. And Bumblebee, since I _know_ you disobeyed orders and Sari is actually with you, rather than where she's _supposed_ to be right now, you better make sure nothing happens to her... or to Allison and Sunstreaker. Am I clear on that?"_

"_Understood,"_ Bumblebee said quickly, trying hard not to sound guilty. _"We'll take it from here."_

"_Before you go,"_ Ratchet interjected, stopping Bumblebee from severing the link. _"There's something you should know..."_ Ratchet sounded a cross between annoyed and disturbed as he lingered on those last words, and Bumblebee and Sideswipe paused.

"_Oh boy, more surprises," _mumbled Sideswipe, an annoyed garble through the link. _"Just what we need."_

"_What is it, Ratchet?" _Bumblebee sighed, starting to feel a little weary from the bad news that was piling on top of them.

"_Wheeljack is on his way."_ Ratchet said, and by the tone of his voice this was something completely unplanned. _"And I would wager that Starscream is with him."_

"_W-what?" _Bumblebee and Sideswipe collectively shared their disbelief, voices jumbled.

"_There was an..._event_... in the cell block. Prowl went down there and...well... let's just say Wheeljack's taken it upon himself to do some impromptu recruiting," _Ratchet said, sounding rather unimpressed.

Sideswipe looked at Bumblebee, an incredulous look on both their faces. _"Can you repeat that again, Ratchet? Did you just say what I think you just said?"_

"_Wheeljack had the urge to break out a Decepticon prisoner and sneak out of the base with him. I would hazard a guess that he wasn't satisfied waiting for you to bring back Sunstreaker and Allison, so he thought he'd be proactive."_ Ratchet grunted, perturbed. _"Look, just be on the lookout for Wheeljack. And be prepared for... well I don't know what. Fair warning though; I don't exactly know what state Wheeljack's processor will be in once he gets there. For all I know he's gone completely out of his mind."_

"_I think that happened a long time ago..." _Sideswipe said dully, and Bumblebee saw him rub absently at his shoulder, calling to memory what must have been Wheeljack's final encounter with him before they left.

"_I'm serious, Sideswipe. Wheeljack was not happy when he found out. I really don't know what lengths he'll go to, but he obviously felt it worth recruiting a murderous Decepticon to help him. Just... if it comes down to an encounter, try to understand what he's going through. I don't think there've been many Cybertronians who have shared his kind of experiences, and I just don't know what to expect."_

"_Don't worry Ratchet," _Bumblebee said._ "We'll bring him home safely. We'll bring them all home."_

"_What about Starscream?" _Sideswipe interjected._ "We don't care about him, right?"_

"_We don't, no. But I'm not sure Prime wouldn't take too kindly to any action taken against him without his consent... We'll cross that bridge when we get there. We can't wait for them. Allison and Sunstreaker need us now, because who knows what they're doing to them." _Bumblebee said, murmuring a goodbye to Ratchet.

Bumblebee ended the transmission, looking between Sideswipe and Sari at the ground. Sideswipe looked like he was trying to decide whether or not he should be excited, or alarmed about running into a Decepticon outpost alone. Knowing that Wheeljack was coming _with_ a Decepticon wasn't making that choice any easier to make. Sari on the other hand, was looking perturbed that she had once again been cut out of the conversation.

"He didn't really say anything about not being able to beat the tar out of Starscream, right? I mean, you know, caught in the crossfire and all." Sideswipe said out loud, anxiously.

"It's not exactly normal for someone to get caught in the crossfire of someone's _blades_, Sideswipe," Bumblebee warned. "Save your enthusiasm for the enemy. I mean our current enemy." He looked down at Sari, who looked confused. "Wheeljack is coming... to help," he added apprehensively, not entirely sure if he was lying about that or not.

"Of course he is," Sari said, eyes going wide. "It's Allison. I don't think anything could stop him from coming to help. Not even Prime, I bet."

"Apparently not," Bumblebee nodded, knowing there was at least some truth to that. "Because it doesn't sound like Prime authorized this... mission... and I highly doubt he offered to let Wheeljack take Starscream out for some fresh air," Bumblebee said, looking down at the girl at his feet who had her eyes narrowed.

"What does Starscream have to do with this?" Sari asked, perplexed.

"Starscream is apparently...uh...helping him, so I need you to be prepared for anything." Bumblebee lied. He was feeling very unsettled over this news, and the unknowing was frustrating. Wheeljack was his friend, and he felt for him... but in all honesty Bumblebee couldn't wrap his head around what his friend was possibly thinking. He was deeply worried for Wheeljack. Coming on his own was one thing, even expected on a purely instinctive level, because Bumblebee thought he would likely do the same if it were Sari in trouble. But bringing the Decepticon simply made no sense, unless Wheeljack was using Starscream as a disposable means to an end. That brought to mind all sorts of frightening possibilities that Bumblebee did not want to entertain.

Perhaps, he finally had snapped after all; one too many explosions in the face. Even though that was always a distinct possibility, he knew that Wheeljack's reasoning was far more deep-seated in his emotions to be some purely mad scheme. He was acting under duress, and letting his emotions control his actions leading him to do things that really made no sense to outsiders looking in. It was as if there was some boxed away corner of Wheeljack's mind, a part that had been teetering on the precipice of some unstable abyss for some time, and someone had finally walked up and tipped it over the edge.

"That's weird. Why on Earth would Starscream want to help the Autobots?" Sari almost smiled for a moment. "Do you think he's actually thinking of changing sides?"

"I wouldn't get so hopeful," Bumblebee said. "Maybe Wheeljack is just trying to do what we're doing... get into the Decepticon base, and he thinks that Starscream is his best chance of getting out alive. I don't know...just...if you see them don't approach Starscream by any means. I don't know what precautions Wheeljack's taken, if any, but I just wouldn't risk it."

"But Wheeljack's okay, right? I mean... it's Wheeljack."

"That's what I'm afraid of. Look, we can't wait. Let's head in that direction. We'll find someplace for you to lay low until we get back," Bumblebee said, ignoring the face Sari made to show her disapproval at being left behind. "With luck, we'll be back before he arrives. If not, I just hope his logic circuits are functioning."

Sari nodded solemnly, and it was clear on her face that she was realizing things were about to become a great deal less fun. Bumblebee didn't need her to tell him, as he felt the same foreboding sense of danger. They made their way back to the road, and she waited for Bumblebee to transform to his vehicular mode before climbing silently inside. He felt himself subconsciously speed up, the desire to lose as little time as possible the only thing on his mind.


	23. Rescue

**(c) Hasbro/Takra**

* * *

><p>Bumblebee gazed down the scope of his rifle, the barrel resting perfectly still on the rock that he was lying behind. Through the scope, the two Decepticon drones that he had his focus on were also still as statues. They hadn't moved an inch for the past 20 minutes, and Bumblebee was admittedly itching to take them out. It wasn't something that came naturally, the urge to kill. But time was shaping him to realize that there were times when he had no choice but to make the first move. The Decepticons didn't give the Autobots any time to second guess themselves.<p>

Unfortunately for Bumblebee, the area was crawling with guards on foot patrol, and to make a move now would only bring them all down on top of the two lone Autobots. Ratchet had managed to ping their locations on their internal scanners, but all it did was provide them with the numbers, it didn't give them a plan on how to tackle them. The only thing currently on their side was surprise, and even that was of minimal benefit. With little else to go on, the odds of success looked feeble at best.

The two observed the scene from where they were hunkered down. The cave was below them, surrounded by hills on all sides as well as a number of Decepticons. Horribly outnumbered and outgunned, they had little in the way of strategy, though this didn't seem to dismay Sideswipe at all, much to Bumblebee's discomfort. If anything, the Autobot seemed almost eager. The fact that they had at some point also tripped proximity alarms, now wailing intermittently in the distance, was even less of deterrence. Unfortunately the two guards at the door were not unmoved in the slightest and remained firmly rooted to the spot outside the entrance, weapons clutched in their hands.

Sari's face flashed in Bumblebee's mind. After finding a cluster of abandoned buildings about ten miles east of their location, they had left her with the urgent warning to _stay hidden _and be on the lookout for Wheeljack and his Decepticon parolee should they decide to pass by. Where they were going, and where they currently were, was no place for the young girl, even though she had vehemently protested otherwise.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Bumblebee whispered over the blare of the proximity alarm, voice skeptical. A short distance away, a small group of Decepticon's went running past the entrance to the shaft. To Bumblebee's relief, they kept running, disappearing around a rocky outcropping and out of sight. So far the regular patrol didn't seem to be affected by the external events going on around them. "You going down there alone doesn't strike me as a particularly good idea." He gave Sideswipe a sidelong glance, but the red and white Autobot was too busy adjusting his own weapon to notice his frustrated look.

"You provide the cover fire and distract them, and I can do the rest," Sideswipe said, boyish confidence in full-force as he put away his weapon in his hip compartment.

"What... what are you doing?"

"I don't need this," Sideswipe said. "Besides, it makes too much noise."

"Then what are you going to do? Throw rocks at them? Hurl witty jokes, perhaps?"

"My jokes might be sharp, Bumblebee," Sideswipe said, raising his body to a crouch as he moved forward. With a soft _shink_ the Autobot released the built-in blades from his forearms. "But these are sharper." He turned the blades in the moonlight, and for a moment Bumblebee worried that the glimmer might glance off them and give them away. Sideswipe didn't seem concerned. "Quick, quiet and clean. Besides, when have I ever let you down?"

"Well, give me a minute and let me count... This might take a while." Bumblebee said, disheartened, and seriously worried that their chances of success were quickly plummeting like a downed fighter jet.

"I'm thinking of naming them," Sideswipe said, still admiring them, idly.

"Why would you do that?" Bumblebee hissed.

"It's an Earth custom for a soldier to name his weapons."

"What would you _possibly_ call your blades?"

"I call this one Jessie," Sideswipe said, fondly regarding the long, deviously thin blade on his left arm. "And this one... " He turned to his right. "...Stabbetha."

"_Stabbetha?_" Bumblebee asked. "Sideswipe, _they're being tortured_," Bumblebee blurted, exasperated.

"Good point," Sideswipe said with a frown, face immediately turning serious. He looked up at the cave entrance. "I don't know... Maybe it's nerves. If they've actually hurt them..."

"If you want me to go in first, Sideswipe..." Bumblebee offered, as they exchanged a shared look of dwindling hope. If there was any misconceived notion that the Decepticon's hadn't touched Sunstreaker and Allison, they were lying to themselves, but somehow it helped.

"No, I can do this." He let out a deep sigh. "Alright, let's get this over with." Before Bumblebee could say anything more Sideswipe began picking his way down the covered hilltop towards the first group of Decepticons at the bottom.

Bumblebee watched as Sideswipe disappeared over the small ridge, following his partner with the scope of his rifle. The Autobot made it down to the base of the hill, and immediately stepped to the right, hiding behind an outcropping of rock. Bumblebee cast his gaze towards the mine entrance. The two guards had been joined by two small groups of Decepticons, two on either side of the duo guarding the entrance. Each group stood a few feet from the center, taking up a small spot on either side.

Satisfied they weren't going anywhere, Bumblebee returned his vision back to Sideswipe. As expected, a Decepticon drone entered the area on its patrol route. It walked rigidly towards the bottom of the hill, and Bumblebee followed it with his scope. The Decepticon passed by the rock formation that Sideswipe was hugging. When it stepped beyond the blind spot, Sideswipe took a silent step towards it, grabbing its shoulder with one hand and driving a long, pointed blade through its back. The Decepticon went down silently without so much as twitching, and Sideswipe yanked the blade out from its chest as he took off again, running in a low crouch along rows of loose boulders and scraggly brush. He made his way around in a long, wide arch to the east, moving around the hill that made up the entrance to the mine.

Sideswipe eventually disappeared from sight, and Bumblebee quickly changed his focus to a small, barren tree on the top of the hill. He stilled his intakes as he waited for Sideswipe to show up again. They had cut all com chatter, relying purely on their optics. After a few moments, Sideswipe finally appeared at the top of the hill, silently stepping towards the ridge overlooking the drones beneath at the mine's entrance. Through his scope, he saw Sideswipe signal through motion for Bumblebee to ready himself. The yellow Autobot steadied himself, his reflexes ready.

Without a sound, Sideswipe lept down from the ridge, coming down hard on top of the two central Decepticon soldiers. As he fell, he drove his blades into the back of their necks, their bodies jerking as their spinal columns were severed. They went down hard and fast. The two groups on either side reacted faster than Bumblebee had expected them too, but not fast enough to fire before Sideswipe had brought his arms up in a wide arch, decapitating the two closest Decepticons.

Bumblebee immediately fired dual shots, putting two bullets into the heads of the two remaining 'Cons before they could even raise their weapons. He then raised his rifle high, and took out the enemy that had just appeared on the ridge above the entrance, hitting it before it could swing its own blaster around and shoot Sideswipe in the back. The bullet hit it between the eyes as its head exploded, and it slumped down, falling off the ridge to the ground beside Sideswipe's feet.

Bumblebee looked up from his scope, as he watched Sideswipe disappear into the mine's entrance. In accordance with their plan, he counted in his head the seconds that would equal out to the three minutes they had agreed on waiting before Bumblebee would follow. It felt like the longest three minutes of his comparatively long life, but when there were no explosions, and no rattling sounds of gunfire, he was satisfied that Sideswipe hadn't run straight into the gun barrels of more troops. There were certainly more of them, not to mention Soundwave, and at least Knock Out running around somewhere, but so far the major players had been mysteriously absent. Bumblebee dismissed this as sheer dumb luck, choosing not to rely on such an unpredictable factor, but he would take advantage regardless. If they were quick, they might just get in and out undetected with their precious cargo alive.

Taking a quick look at the area before vaulting over his rock, Bumblebee sprinted down to the entrance, keeping low. The immediate area was now empty, but that didn't mean they were completely in the clear. Ratchet's maps had indicated rotating patrols. Any troops out there that might be due to return soon would outnumber them greatly, and they would be on immediate alert given the Decepticon corpses now littering the ground. They only had a small window of time before the rotating patrol came back and flanked them, and if that happened they'd be trapped inside a Decepticon stronghold.

Bumblebee's rifle would be too difficult to maneuver in close-combat situations, so he holstered it in his back, reformatting his arm into his near-silent ion blaster. There was a faint whir as the inner turbine spun to life, but Wheeljack had long ago installed suppressants that kept the noise to a faint whine that was difficult to perceive. It made scouting much more practical and less of an auditory nightmare.

After an initial sweep of the immediate entrance was clear, Bumblebee steeled his nerves and slipped inside. Sideswipe was to take care of the first waves of Decepticons, assuming he didn't get cocky and get himself killed first. He had managed to do his job; as Bumblebee slinked through the cave corridors there was not a single Decepticon in sight. That either meant they were really, really lucky, or they were about to find themselves in a lot of trouble.

The dark, carved out walls of the shaft were barren of any discernible markings, though Bumblebee could already sense the trace elements of energon even from this distance. There was no time to marvel, or panic at the fact that somehow there was an energon mine deep within the earth itself, and that the Decepticons had found it before them. There was no other real explanation for the energon spike Ratchet had detected, unless the Decepticons had for some reason decided to stockpile some of their reserves hundreds of miles from the Nemesis. Somehow, that made less sense, but right now that was secondary to their real goal.

Bumblebee didn't risk lighting the area, choosing to rely on his optic sensors to illuminate the way down. This cast his vision in a luminescent blue filter, which made the unnatural cave beautiful but eerie at the same time. It didn't take long to come across the first Decepticon corpse, the first clue to Sideswipe's passage. It had been neatly placed aside in a small alcove, keeping it away from the main shaft. Their trail of bodies would be found eventually, but they had no intention on remaining behind long enough to be caught. It was pure luck alone that the Decepticon base wasn't as fortified inside as he had originally expected. The majority of the guards here appeared to be distracted by something else. He had seen one or two small patrols running down adjacent corridors, oblivious to the presence of the two Autobots making their way through their lair.

A muffled noise made Bumblebee stop and jump behind the alcove, one that he now found himself sharing with the Decepticon corpse. The cave walls made sound carry in ways that made pinpointing locations of noises difficult. This was also offset by the intermittent blare of a siren, but he wasn't going to take any chances. There were no discernible Decepticon signatures in the area, so he waited with stilled intakes for another sign as to the whereabouts of the source of the noise. He found himself unfortunately staring directly at the dead Decepticon, remnants of its neck mere inches from his own. It looked like it had been shaved clean off, and while this was an uncomfortable, if not deeply disturbing thing to have to get cozy with, Bumblebee tried to ignore it.

The same, distant, near-silent noise repeated, and from his changed position Bumblebee registered what he'd previously heard. It was coming from further down and from what looked like an off-shoot corridor on the left. Whatever it was, it was distinctly human, which was all Bumblebee needed to encourage his limbs to move. A quick scan with his optics showed the area to be empty, so he slipped around the alcove and sprinted the remaining distance to where the cave path parted.

Bumblebee stopped just short of the door, checking the adjacent hall. There were no guards around, which still made him extremely nervous despite the evidence of an external distraction keeping the Decepticons busy. If Allison really was in there, then it was possible they had considered her not at risk of escaping, or she was in such a state that such an attempt would have been...problematic.

Not wanting to debate this in his head, he ran up to the entrance, standing by the door for a moment before slipping in silently, his ion cannon held high. He immediately began scanning the room for a target, an instinctive habit ingrained into his routine from centuries of scouting behind enemy lines. His blaster and line of sight came to rest on a table in the center of the room, the struggling figure strapped to it the only living body present. It was Allison.

Dropping his weapon immediately, Bumblebee felt his spark skip a beat as he was caught off-guard for barely a second. Allison hadn't noticed him enter, as she was currently more focused on struggling against the metal bounds that were holding her against the table, but she was making no progress. She was breathing in heavy gasps, and her movements were exhaustive at best as she flailed weakly, indicating that she had likely been at the endeavor for a while.

Bumblebee did not waste any more time as he stepped forward, the noise of his approach finally catching Allison by surprise as she froze, an expression of sudden terror passing over her face. Knock Out had done this; there was no other explanation, as Allison was clearly expecting someone else to be entering the room.

"Allison," Bumblebee whispered, keeping his voice low as he hit the table next to her. She finally turned and looked at him, expression taking an agonizingly long moment to change from one of horror to sudden stupefied relief as recognition passed over her face. "Hey you... I found you..." It only took a quick look over to realize she was in pretty bad shape. Her face and neck were dirty, dampened from sweat and dried blood from the multitude of scratches on her skin—probably from the crash. Her cheeks were darkened and streaked with what she had called _makeup_ that had been smeared across her face, accentuated by what looked like the beginnings of a black eye on one side of her face where she must have hit something. Her clothing was torn in places and dirty, the skin on her hands cracked. She looked completely drained of energy and spirit, so it was all he could say to try and calm her.

"B-Bumblebee?" Allison rasped, voice heavy with stunned emotion as her eyes shifted around nervously. "P-Please... get this off me..." Her frightened gaze shifted down to the metal straps pinning her body to the table. Bumblebee followed her eyes and lifted his hands to try and pull them off, but he stopped when Allison flinched like a startled animal. He let his hands hover in the air for a moment, feeling his systems heat up with anger. Something had happened to make Allison irrationally terrified of him on first impulse, and it was starting to make him think that Wheeljack probably wasn't as crazy as they all thought for throwing all caution out the window. It was making _him_ angry, just to have to come upon his friend this way, clearly beaten, fearing for her life, and some part of her baser instincts telling her that _he_ was a threat.

"I'm going to get you out of here..." Bumblebee said quietly, and Allison gave him a shaky nod to indicate that she understood. She tensed when his fingers brushed against her body when he pulled at the straps, but he had to ignore it for her sake, whether she understood that or not. To his dismay, they didn't budge, and he tried pulling harder. Allison whimpered as his fingers dug harder against her body, and she squirmed.

"I think... I think Knock Out pressed a button..." Allison swallowed, trying to get her voice under control. "I think it's over there..." she gestured with a nod of her head towards the side of the table towards him, and Bumblebee immediately began sliding his finger just under the edge of the metal slab. He felt an indentation in the metal, and closing his optics he pressed it, silently hoping it wasn't going to trip some sensor to give away his position. The indented piece of the table that Allison as encased in immediately lurched upwards to become flush with the rest of the surface, the metal straps retracting as her body was thrown upwards. Allison was left sprawled on the table, momentarily stunned as she blinked slowly in shock.

"Okay kid, let's get out of here," Bumblebee said, leaning forward to pull Allison to her feet. She latched onto his arm like a vine, and somehow managed to bury herself in the cables of his neck as she wrapped her arms around him. He hadn't expected her to cling to him so desperately, but he found no feasible reason to stop her, unable to imagine what her and Sunstreaker had been through. He let her stay there for a moment trembling, his own anger simmering within his spark.

"Sunstreaker..." Allison finally mumbled. "They were hurting him..." she said, voice heavy with new grief as if her own captivity was forgotten. "You have to save him... they're going to kill him."

"Sideswipe will get him, don't worry..." Bumblebee said, keeping his voice soft. "Do you remember where they took him?"

"Some kind of interrogation room, further down I think," Allison said, finally regaining some semblance of her sanity for her voice to sound normal again. Bumblebee nodded and scooped her up into his hands, setting her down on the floor next to him. She swayed a little, but otherwise appeared uninjured, and being on the ground would be the best chance for her to stay that way. He could pick her up and simply take off, but the Decepticons would aim at him first, and all it would take would be one stray shot past his shoulder to kill her. Allison didn't complain, whether or not she understood this, but she watched him with urgency in her eyes.

Now was as good a time as any to break radio silence, so he opened up a private channel with Sideswipe. The Autobot did not immediately respond with words, but Bumblebee did not wait for an exchange of pleasantries.

"_Sides... I found Allison. She's alive... but she's in bad shape. I need to get her out of here."_ There was no immediate response save for a ripple of relieved understanding on the other end. Bumblebee hurriedly continued. _"It seems that Sunstreaker is down your way somewhere... in interrogation." _

"_Understood."_ Sideswipe's reply was abrupt, then the link was immediately severed. Not wanting to waste time, Bumblebee gestured for Allison to follow before turning back to the open doorway, stopping and hitting the wall near the door just as a group of Decepticon drone troops rushed passed. Allison bumped into his leg, but she made no sound as she took notice of what had caused him to stop so abruptly. Bumblebee watched them run deeper into the back of the mine, towards Sideswipe, and he silently hoped that his friend was paying as much attention to his back as he was his front.

"What are you guys protecting?" Bumblebee muttered to himself, not expecting to receive any response at all.

"Soundwave said something about a space bridge..." Allison offered, speaking quietly from below him. This made Bumblebee freeze, knowing the term, but not at all expecting to hear anything of such a device here on this planet. He didn't know enough to be clear on specific details and what exactly they meant—that was Wheeljack's area—but he knew it was bad news.

"We'll need to tell Wheeljack," Bumblebee said quickly, voice low. "That...can't mean anything good for us... but for now it means they aren't as concerned with us as they should be."

"Is Wheeljack here?" Allison asked in a whisper, her voice barely above audible levels.

"No... not yet..." Bumblebee said, leaving out the detail regarding Starscream. Now was probably not the time to tell her that the Decepticon who had successfully killed her once before, was helping the one Autobot she cared about the most. That would need to wait until she was out of harm's way. "But he's coming," he assured her.

"We need to leave before he does..." Allison said with a hiss, new urgency in her voice. "They need him... that's what this whole thing was about. They wanted to get Wheeljack to walk right into their trap." She looked a little bit miserable at that last sentence, and Bumblebee could understand why. It was an awareness that she had just been used as bait for something far more devious.

"Okay, okay, I understand. First things first, let's get you out of here, and then we'll call Wheeljack and tell him to stay away."

"Thank you, Bumblebee," Allison's voice sounded strained again, like some mental process in her mind was in disarray and she couldn't quite believe what was coming out of her mouth—she was supposed to die on that table and nobody was supposed to save her. She had probably been about to accept her fate when he walked in, throwing everything for a loop, and it was going to probably take her a bit to sort through and process what happened once it was all over.

For now, a deep breath was all it took, and Allison seemed to steady again. "...Thank you..." she murmured, voice soft.

"Hey it was nothing," Bumblebee whispered lightly. "Let's get you safe and back to Wheeljack, okay?" He saw the subtle movement of Allison's head as she nodded, and after a quick sweep of the corridor he slipped back into the main hallways with Allison close behind him.


	24. Reunited

**(c) Hasbro/Takara**

* * *

><p>Sideswipe hurried down into the mine shaft, leaving Bumblebee to cover his back as he disappeared into the darkness. He had encountered surprisingly little resistance, mostly in the form of a lone guard patrolling one dark corridor, and the other being a fairly sizable rat, which had scurried off into the darkness. He was just glad Bumblebee hadn't been there to see him jump at the sight of the rodent.<p>

Following the internal schematics he had memorized from Ratchet's surveys, Sideswipe eventually reached the fork he was expecting, and took the route leading right, the intention being that Bumblebee would take the left. He had followed it around in a deep curve, the ridged floor below him sloping gradually down. Eventually he found himself standing behind a corner, with two Decepticon drones guarding a thick, heavy door. The hall formed a kind of T-junction, with this hallway extending further down and the door off to the side on the branching path. If Bumblebee's prior communique was correct, this was where Sunstreaker was being held.

Looking up, the Autobot observed that a series of thick heavy pipes hung from the shadowed cave roof, carrying on down the various branches. He leapt up, grabbing the pipes and testing their weight. When they held, he lifted his body up by his arms and hugged the pipework, wrapping his legs around them so that he was essentially crawling upside down. Shrouded in darkness, he silently made his way along the ceiling, turning to go down the branched path. He was in complete view of the faceless drones, but they didn't seem to notice him in as they continued to stand there like golems. When he was right above them, he tightened his grip with his legs, and swung his upper body down so that he was face to face with the unexceptional, nearly identical visages of the nameless drones. At first they did not react, and simply returned Sideswipe's expectant glare with passive silence. Sideswipe grinned, raising his blades to his face.

"Hello. This is Jessie, and this is Stabbetha. Perhaps you would like to meet them?"

The humor was lost on the guards, as they instantly raised their rifles, pointing them at Sideswipe's face. One of them spoke,

"In the name of Lord Megatr-"

Sideswipe's blades came down, slicing off the ends of both Decepticons' gun barrels. He dropped deftly to the ground, spinning in a crouch to cut the legs out from underneath one of the armed Cons. The second put up more of a fight, blocking Sideswipe's blades and managing to get a kick in to the Autobot's chest. It made an attempt to bring a second hit with its fist down onto his helm, which would have knocked him flat, but Sideswipe caught the fist with one hand and pushed back. He brought his other blade down on the arm he had locked in place, severing it with a spray of energon fluid and sparks as it ripped clean from the Con's internal wiring. He finished the drone off with a thrust to the chest, ripping clean through the metal and severing the spark from its lifelines. With a shudder, the Decepticon went limp as its optics dimmed, and it fell to the ground.

"I guess you weren't their type anyhow," Sideswipe quipped, feeling somewhat pleased with himself as he shook the grisly fluid from his blades before retracting them back into his arms. He stepped over the leaking bodies, pushing through the door and into the dark room beyond. It didn't take him even a second to spot Sunstreaker, who was hanging limp from the energized chains holding him aloft. Sideswipe's energon froze at the sight of his brother, the wounds he sustained obvious as his spilled fluid glowed in the dark. Any sense of humor he harbored, all traces of bravado, all fled in a single instance.

Sideswipe ran to his brother's side, quickly checking his life signs. Sunstreaker's head was bowed and he was perfectly still, but faint lights radiated from inside him. The faint trace of energy as their sparks reunited in proximity told Sideswipe that Sunstreaker was barely clinging on; his spark energy reacted with barely so much as a weakened flail towards the beckoning pull of his brother's, like a terrified sparkling not wanting to be left behind. He touched his brother's arm, and recoiled when he felt how cold Sunstreaker was. Phantom pains picked their way across Sideswipe's body, culminating into a central location on his chest, where he saw that Sunstreaker had been run through. It suddenly became more clear exactly how Soundwave's tentacle had been severed, because he'd dared use it on the one Autobot that hated to see his armor marred.

"Oh Sunstreaker..." he whispered, his disappointment in his brother suddenly a distant issue. "What did they do to you?"

Sunstreaker's eyes flickered for a moment before opening slightly. It caught Sideswipe by surprise, though this was quickly filled with relief and hope. Sunstreaker struggled to speak, mouth opening, but vocalizers refusing to respond at first.

"Break...down..."

"Break down?" Sideswipe asked, struggling to understand. "Break down what?"

"No... _Breakdown_..." Sunstreaker's words came out in one pained wheeze.

"Look, don't talk," Sideswipe urged. "Save your energy."

"...turn," Sunstreaker mumbled, clearly ignoring his brother's advice. "They tried...to turn me..." his voice stopped, warbling with sudden pain. Sideswipe knew what his brother was getting at, but this wasn't the appropriate time to confess guilt, or whatever he thought he was doing. He wasn't going to die. Not today.

"But you didn't, that's what's important." Sideswipe said to his brother, trying to smile, but to no effect as Sunstreaker's body slumped. Sideswipe frantically looked around for some sort of mechanism to disable the energon chains and free his brother. He couldn't see anything that was immediately obvious, and running around searching would just take time that he didn't have.

Instead, Sideswipe brought out a blade and hacked at the energy chains that bound Sunstreaker. There was a shower of sparks and a fleeting burst of pain down Sideswipe's arm as the blade connected, and the chains finally broke with a fizzling snap of energy when he refused to relent. Sunstreaker immediately fell, and Sideswipe tried to catch his dead weight. He too was forced to the ground in his effort to take the brunt of the impact off of his brother. He lay Sunstreaker down, but after no amount of encouragement seemed to be able to rouse him from stasis, Sideswipe looked around desperately.

There was nothing in the room that could be of use, and he was no medic, so he had no tools with him to snap his brother out of stasis. Sunstreaker was drained, and weak, and there was no way he could just carry him out unless he wanted them both to get shot. During their time in the gladiatorial rings on Cybertron, they had learned a trick that was ultimately very, very dangerous, but one that had saved their lives on more than one occasion.

Sideswipe looked up at the ceiling, as if expecting Ratchet to be looking down on him, frowning in disappointment. "Yeah, I know," Sideswipe muttered to his imagined ghost. "You're going to kill me."

Looking down, Sideswipe began prying at his brother's chest, looking for the hidden catch that would open the spark chamber. With a labored shift of moving parts, Sunstreaker's chest opened to reveal the struggling spark underneath, an action which roused the Autobot into alarmed consciousness.

"What... are you... doing?" Sunstreaker's optics were dim, but he sounded slightly irritated, if not obviously weak. This made Sideswipe feel that tiny bit better. An irritated Sunstreaker meant a fighting Sunstreaker. Still, it was a vague sign at best and the hard part hadn't begun.

"I'm not carrying your fat aft out of here. You're walking..." Sideswipe said, taking a deep intake of air as he opened his own chest. He knew this was going to hurt like the Pit, but he didn't care. "You need energy. You know how this works... this is going to hurt bro, I'm sorry..."

"Damn it, Sideswipe. You know you're...only meant to do this...in emergencies..."

"Yeah well, I think this qualifies," Sideswipe said, pulling a wire from his spark casing with a burst of static energy. "Hold still." Before Sunstreaker could utter another word in protest, Sideswipe jammed the unraveled wire hard into his brother's own spark chamber. The energies immediately collided and their sparks bound together in a forced connection, making their bodies jerk with the sudden shock of pain_. _Sideswipe closed his optics and stilled his intakes, bracing every sensor and nerve transmitter for the pain that was to come. Then he pushed.

Sideswipe forced what energy he could from his own spark chamber through the link, trying to stay strong against the overwhelming, blinding pain that surged through every sensor in his body. Internal alarms warning of imminent stasis lock and system failure flashed across his vision and shrieked in his processor, but he overrode them with stubborn indifference. He ignored Sunstreaker's screams of agony as his spark surged, optics bursting alight as the energon flooded from one brother to another, looking for equilibrium. Fighting against his own suffering, and the weakness that was slowly encroaching on his limbs as the energy transfer continued, Sideswipe tried to still his brother's struggling to break the link and end the pain.

It was only supposed to last a few seconds, the transfer of pure energon between them extremely dangerous, and deadly if done wrong, but Sideswipe was determined to give whatever he could possibly spare to his brother. He felt the sudden weakness starting to overcome his own senses, and it was only when an enraged Sunstreaker grabbed him and forced him away that the connection was abruptly severed. Drained, and limbs numb, Sideswipe collapsed onto his back, venting shallowly as his optics struggled to compensate.

Sunstreaker's optics were wide now, his lights burning brighter as his replenished energy started to flood his sensors. It wouldn't heal him, but it would provide him with the strength to stay alive, and fight their way out if necessary. In contrast, Sideswipe felt like he'd just been on the losing end of some serious fisticuffs, and for a moment he lay there dazed and in pain. His chest especially felt like a sunburst of agony, like some kind of creature had crawled into his chest cavity and was wrapping itself around his spark chamber, squeezing and constricting the life from it.

Sideswipe was roused out of his hazy stupor of pain and weakness when a very angry Sunstreaker grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up. "Oowww...Careful..."

"That... was the _dumbest _piece of work I have ever seen..." Sunstreaker snarled, his own chest plates closing with an aggressive clatter as he pulled Sideswipe's own spark chamber closed.

"And you're..." Sideswipe struggled, chest heaving as it closed painfully. "...The most ungrateful bastard I've ever known. You're welcome by the way..."

"Fine, thank you. So tell me now... How does this helps our situation, exactly? Because now I get to carry _you're_ _fatter_ aft out of here..."

Sideswipe swayed a little, trying to maintain a grip on Sunstreaker as he was pulled to his feet. "No... now we get to carry _both _our sorry afts out of here... together. What more could a brother want?"

"Oh please," Sunstreaker grumbled, rolling his optics as they steadied each other on shaky legs. Sideswipe felt his strength slowly returning, and it only helped invigorate him to see his brother alive, strengthened, and... annoyed with him. Everything was just as it should be.

There was a brief moment of internal static, startling them as their coms kicked in, then what sounded like Bumblebee's voice. _"-idewipe? Where-re you? This-Bumblebee, please respond. You-etter be alive."_

"The spark transfer's weakened my signal," Sideswipe said, frowning. "I hope this gets through." He opened the comm-link. _"Bumblebee? This is Sideswipe. Can you hear me?"_

_"Thank Primus! You're safe! Did you find Sunstreaker?"_

Bumblebee's voice sounded tentative, like he was afraid of the answer that was to come.

_"Roger that," _Sideswipe said, happily._"He's here with me, now."_

_"H- How is he?" _Bumblebee asked, concern evident in his voice.

Sunstreaker growled into the comm-link. _"Able to answer his own damn comm,"_ he grumbled. _"And I'm just fantastic, thank you for asking. Thanks to cheddar brain here..." _Sunstreaker was ignoring Sideswipe's proud smile.

_"Glad to see you didn't lose your egocentric charm," _Bumblebee replied.

_"And you're still a jerk. Where are you?"_

_"Allison and I are near the entrance," _Bumblebee said. He paused. _"Wheeljack says hi."_

Sunstreaker blinked. _"If that's a joke, Bumblebee, it's not a very good one." _He noticed Sideswipe's optics purposely find some vacant area of space to focus on, clearly avoiding contact with his own.

As if on queue, Wheeljack's voice entered the com-link. _"I assure you, Sunstreaker; this isn't a joke." _The Autobot scientist's voice was dead serious, which was not something that happened often. It generally meant someone was about to meet the business end of his fist, and the two brother's collectively shared a look of confirmation, that it was going to be their faces.

Sunstreaker stared at his brother with a slightly accusing glare. _"Is there anything else you wish to bring to my attention while we're sharing, Bumblebee?"_ His question was directed at Bumblebee, but his voice clearly told Sideswipe that his brother did not approve of the secrecy he had helped maintain. _"Because I would love to know now."_

A new voice entered the comm-chatter, one that sent the brothers' blood running cold. _"Ah... I fear this one might sound more believable coming from me."_

Starscream.

Sunstreaker stared at Sideswipe, mortified. "What?"

* * *

><p>Bumblebee and Allison had been slowly making their way up to the entrance. It wasn't far, but with his new charge Bumblebee had wanted to be extra careful. He had found the familiar passage leading up to the front entrance, and carefully he looked around the corner to check his route. The path up looked clear. Bumblebee turned around, looking quickly over his shoulder to make sure no one was following. Allison hovered at his leg, taking a moment to lean slack against him, exhausted, as she waited for the Autobot to keep moving.<p>

Satisfied, Bumblebee motioned with his head for Allison to move then quickly sprinted around the corner. Almost immediately he ran into a huge, hulking figure, and a split second before he processed what was in front of him he heard a startled gasp from around his feet as Allison also recognized it. Delayed, the two Cybertronians finally reeled back with a mixture of confused shouts, raising their weapons at each other. The collective glow of the barrels of their blasters provided the only light in the corridor as a brief, tense standoff ensued. Bumblebee froze, pointing his ion cannon high at the offending figure's lightly colored, massive chest. The business end of a hand blaster was pointed right in between Bumblebee's optics; a deadly shot if his opponent fired. It never came, and after a few seconds of confusion recognition finally began to sink in as their optics refocused in the gloom.

"Wheeljack?" Bumblebee asked, relief flooding his system as he lowered his weapon. He was finally able to get a clear, unpanicked look at the white, red and green mech in front of him.

"Damn it, Bumblebee, you scared the Pit out of m-" Wheeljack's flashing words were cut off as he spotted Allison on the ground, his optics immediately drawn downward almost magnetically to where the human was standing partially hidden behind Bumblebee's armored leg. Allison made an indecipherable noise half between a gasp and a choke, raising an uncertain hand as if to offer a meek wave in greeting. Wheeljack looked stunned as his optics glazed over with loving relief. "...Allison?" His speech panels blinked softly, but in the darkness it created a harsh contrast in the cavern, washing them in azure glow

The two stared at each other for a moment, and Wheeljack offered out his hand, slowly crouching down to the human's level. Allison did not waste any time as she quickly came out from behind Bumblebee's leg and clamored onto Wheeljack's palm with a cry of desperate relief. The two reconciled silently, Allison with a small smile as she clung to him and Wheeljack through sad eyes as he held her close to his chest.

"Well, that was a close one, wasn't it?" Starscream's voice rang, effectively shattering the moment of peace as he stepped out of the shadows, his hands clasped together in a nervous gesture. Allison shrank back against Wheeljack as if she could somehow meld into his plating, fear quickly returning to her face as Starscream emerged from behind the larger Autobot. Bumblebee immediately raised his ion cannon out of pure instinct. The lights spun inside his blaster and a whirr filled the air as he charged up a shot. Wheeljack managed to lunge with one hand, shouting above Allison's startled shriek as she scrambled to find purchase on his chest plating. The blast went wide, hitting the rocky roof above them, and a shower of melted rock and dirt cascaded down from above.

"Bumblebee!" Wheeljack cried, doubled over as he covered Allison with his body, bits of heated debris and dust bouncing from his plating. "He's with me!" He straightened, Allison pale with shock in his palm as he buzzed with startled anger, vocal panels shifting to an angrier shade of red.

"Primus, Wheeljack! Have you gone _insane_? I mean... I knew he was coming...but I'm not sure I really believed it." Bumblebee stared at the hunched over, clearly nervous Decepticon with his own uncertainty. "He's...secure...right?"

Starscream pointed at his own neck. "Immobilizer," he said, helpfully.

"Don't worry," Wheeljack said. "He's not going anywhere. And he won't do anything to harm us. That collar is insurance that he does what we want. Otherwise, I have a shiny red button here that reminds him." Wheeljack lifted his other arm, a slightly raised addition that had been added on to his natural plating, with a button just as described glowing with sinister intent. "Should I demonstrate?"

Starscream looked at Wheeljack nervously, widened red optics darting between the Autobot and the button on his arm poised at the Decepticon's eye level.

"That's... that's really not necessary!" Starscream waved his arms in a wide flail, voice going obnoxiously high. "Surely we should be focusing our efforts on... more important things?" The Decepticon's eyes quickly traveled over Allison before locking onto Wheeljack, but it was quick enough to be easily missed. Wheeljack hadn't noticed, but Bumblebee did, and instantly knew that he didn't trust the lying, slithering pile of scrap.

"Oh Primus..." Bumblebee said. He looked at Allison, who was watching Wheeljack with a look of utter confusion and what could have possibly been anger, but it was hard to truly discern what might have been happening in her head. She had her hands clenched tightly around Wheeljack's finger, and she looked as if she was searching for something to say.

"Sunstreaker might have a fit when he sees you." Bumblebee added, tearing his eyes away from Allison in an attempt to interject before things got awkward. He hadn't told Allison about Starscream, but he hadn't wanted her to find out like this.

"That's too bad," Wheeljack growled, optics narrowed in what was possibly the least amount of sympathy he could muster. "You haven't told him I'm here?" he asked, but he sounded almost hopeful, as if he wanted to take Sunstreaker by surprise. Considering this was mostly Sunstreaker's fault, this wasn't particularly unexpected. Bumblebee was not looking forward to bearing witness to them meeting up.

"You didn't give us much time, 'Jack," Bumblebee said. "Besides, he's been kind of busy, being locked up for interrogation and all..." He understood Wheeljack's perspective, but at the same time he knew that Sunstreaker had risked a lot to try and rectify his mistake. Right now, that wasn't going to sit well with the Autobot, and may not for a long time. He was probably feeling burned, in a big way, and that wasn't something that could be gotten over easily.

This was one scenario Bumblebee always tried to avoid, but always seemed to inevitably find himself in. Perhaps it was his friendly, outgoing nature; perhaps it was just because he was smaller than everyone else and, combined with that easy-going nature of his, offered some sort of unjustly notion of being a neutral observer to events. But somehow Bumblebee had a knack for finding himself the mediator in situations that were usually either beyond him or of a nature that he generally disliked being a part of. Regardless, once again Bumblebee was feeling very much caught in the middle, with the loud, obnoxious, very vocal twins on one side, and the far more older and easily excitable Wheeljack on the other.

To see Wheeljack angry was, under normal circumstances, actually rather rare, to the point that some didn't think the Autobot was capable of that kind of aggression. But the past few months had placed them all in circumstances that were far beyond normal, and Wheeljack's new-found bond had initiated several changes to his character that had brought out an alarming series of emotions far from the passiveness he was known for. Right now, he stood with a spark-born anger that raged violently. If any other Autobot had been in his place, Bumblebee didn't think they would act any differently. Wheeljack just happened to have all sorts of dangerous prototypes and gadgets at his disposal, which made him astronomically more of a force to be reckoned with. Being in Wheeljack's good graces was probably the safer option right now, especially since it appeared that he likely had lost his mind.

"That's why I'm here, isn't it? You might want to tell him now. He might need the heads up." The dangerous look in Wheeljack's eyes told Bumblebee that informing Sunstreaker now might be paramount to the Autobot's survival. Bumblebee pulled up the com, still feeling nervous as he prepared to deliver the bad news.

"Alright," Bumblebee said, grudgingly. "But don't expect him him to be all sunshine and bunnies."

"I would hope not," Wheeljack said with no small amount of malice in his voice. "I'm not here to help him out of this mess."


	25. First Floor: Soundwaves

**Sorry for the long delay. I've had some... issues with writer's block and just some creative problems in general. Truth be told, I got a little burnt out for a bit, but I'm trying to get myself back into the swing of things and also working on a non-TF story for the hell of it. Short chapter again, but there will be some longer chapters coming up. These last few chapters haven't been my favorite, but there is some stuff coming up that I'm pretty happy with. Thanks for reading!  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Sunstreaker stared at Sideswipe, mortified.<p>

"What?" Collectively, they couldn't believe that their audios weren't glitching, that they were actually hearing the slimy, untrustworthy Decepticon in their private channel. It was an invasion, of the worst kind, and they felt themselves recoil with a want to remove themselves from the comm-link as if it was now diseased.

Sunstreaker clenched his fists tightly._ "Please, Wheeljack. Tell me you suddenly gained a horrible sense of humor."_

"_Afraid not,"_ Wheeljack said, with something close to mock sympathy._ "He's here to help, so please, don't shoot him...yet."_

Starscream coughed._ "I would appreciate it if you didn't shoot at me at all..."_

Sunstreaker finally brought up the courage to quietly ask, _"Is she safe?"_

There was a moment of pause, as if Wheeljack was deciding whether or not to answer that question. Sunstreaker waited nervously, fearing bad news of some kind, which was bad news for him by proxy.

"_She's safe, Sunstreaker. She's with me now._" Wheeljack said tersely. A ripple of irritation pooled inside Sunstreaker, that last comment sinking in very clearly. He understood the reason behind it; Sunstreaker was dangerous. This _was_ sort of his fault—not sort of, _really_ his fault, and coming to that conclusion was a hard pill for the Autobot to swallow, considering what he'd had to go through to atone for it. The weeks and weeks of buffing and healing were going to be a constant, painful reminder.

It made Sunstreaker feel isolated and ostracized. It also made him feel insecure, as the notion carried with it an underlying point that he couldn't be trusted to look after even a small human being. The problem was, he was having a hard time understanding why he actually _cared_. He felt conflicted, like his ideals and personal motives were at war with each other, and he didn't like it. All his life, Sunstreaker had stuck to a simple set of rules that prevented him from getting too involved in the lives others. It prevented anyone from getting hurt, (most of all himself), but it also made dealing with these situations extremely difficult.

The feeling was great and rose to the surface quickly, but it was met just as quickly with a feeling of horrible guilt. It was an old resentment, and he was a surprised at how fast that kind of mentality was his first instinct, even after all he'd gone through.

"_I'm glad,"_ Sunstreaker truthfully replied.

Wheeljack snorted. _"Of course, we wouldn't even be having this conversation if y-"_

"_Wheeljack!"_ It was Bumblebee, sounding surprisingly gruff. _"Knock it off. It can wait until we make it back."_

"_But-"_ Wheeljack started to argue.

"_It can wait,"_ Bumblebee repeated.

There was an unfortunately familiar slithering sound. _"Not to impede on the affairs of others,"_ Starscream said. _"But the little yellow one has a valid point. This base is not, ah, in the most static of moments, and we could be descended upon at any moment by my fellow Decepticons."_

"_You'd like that, wouldn't you?"_ Sideswipe grumbled.

Starscream gave a little growl. _"Under normal circumstances... yes. As it is, however, I am in the same predicament as the rest of you. As such, I highly recommend we act with utmost haste if we wish to escape with our lives."_

"_That's going to be a bit of a problem,"_ Sideswipe said. _"Sunstreaker and I aren't in the best of shape I'm afraid. We're making our way up but it's slow going."_

"_Someone's going to have to go down and help you,"_ Bumblebee said roughly, the cycle of air evident over the com. "_Stay put, but stay frosty, guys. I'll be there asap._"

"_Take your time, Bee,_" Sideswipe joked. "_We're not going anywhere._"

The com went dead.

* * *

><p>Bumblebee immediately knew it was going to be him treading deeper into the mine to help the twins out of their infantile predicament. As expected, Wheeljack didn't exactly leap at the chance to run down to Sunstreaker's and Sideswipe's aid. Instead, his eyes narrowed sharply, and he growled,<p>

"Sunstreaker can save himself. If his brother is foolish enough to want to stay behind and help him, then he's welcome to." He looked down at Allison cradled in his hand, who was looking like a very small fish amongst a bunch of angry, bickering, bigger fish. "I have what I came for." His voice went soft, and his eyes glistened with emotion. Allison did not respond with words, but her brow tightened as she looked up at the Autobot who held her.

Bumblebee sighed. "Well, I can't force you to help with this. I'm going to go down and get them. I need you to do something for me though."

"What?" Wheeljack asked curtly.

"Go get Sari for me," Bumblebee pleaded, letting the words out quickly.

Allison looked at the yellow Autobot, startled. "You brought _Sari_ with you?" She asked, voice incredulous when she finally spoke amongst them. Bumblebee was suddenly, and painfully reminded of the conversation he'd had with Allison in the woods what now felt like ages ago. This was something of a drastic contradiction from what he'd promised earlier, and he was feeling the weight of what had been a hasty, and _stupid_ decision born from emotion.

"She was worried about you, Allison. You know what she's like. I don't think I could have stopped her from coming if I tried..." Bumblebee explained. "I left her someplace safe and _told_ her to stay put, like her life depended on it." Allison gave him a look that told him she wasn't quite buying it. "Look, do you think I'm happy she's here? This was supposed to be a simple pick-up mission, thinking you would just be at that train... It wasn't supposed to come to this."

Allison nodded at this, her expression softening as she seemed to understand and accept what he was trying to say. She looked up at Wheeljack with urgent worry, who merely looked at Bumblebee and nodded with assent. Wheeljack turned and began to walk the short distance to the mine's entrance.

Starscream lingered, and did not immediately follow Wheeljack to the entrance. The Decepticon looked at Bumblebee with narrowed eyes, a harsh red glow in the darkness of the cavern.

"This is a foolish decision to make, Autobot," Starscream interjected in a low, raspy voice.

"I don't know how things are amongst your kind," Bumblebee responded, face stony. "But we never leave our brothers behind."

"Oh...?" Starscream turned to look at Wheeljack, who had already started walking up the corridor towards the exit with Allison. Wheeljack appeared to be doing his very best to ignore Starscream by avoiding eye contact, while Allison watched the Decepticon apprehensively. "Never?" The Decepticon's eyes slid towards the human and she turned away from his suggestive leer, looking sick to her stomach.

Bumblebee felt a little uncomfortable, but he stuck to his point. "Wheeljack has something he needs to do, something you can't even begin to grasp the concept of. I can do this on my own." He hesitated, hating himself for even fathoming the phrase he was about to speak. "If you want to come, you're welcome to. I could use a map."

Starscream gave the smallest of laughs. It might have been a chuckle, but his sinister face made it unpleasant. "Sorry. Self preservation is one of my defining points." He turned and followed Wheeljack out of the mine, leaving Bumblebee alone with his own flimsy plan.

Turning, Bumblebee looked down the dark corridor before him and made up his mind. Time was of the essence, and he made fast progress as he sprinted deeper into the depths of the mine, leaping back and forth into recesses in the walls for cover. He threw out scanning bursts in front of him as he progressed, letting the information bounce back and tell him what he was running into: always nothing.

Once Bumblebee reached the fork where he and Sideswipe had split up, he moved more cautiously while still maintaining a quick pace. He navigated with utmost care, knowing that while the majority of the Decepticon forces appeared to have been distracted elsewhere, it was by no means definite that a couple of drones may not still be lingering. He was fast coming to the conclusion, however, that whatever had been transpiring in this base was rapidly drawing to a close. That could only be a bad thing, and it inspired Bumblebee to quicken his pace a little.

"_Bumblebee,_" Sideswipe called over his com, breaking Bumblebee's concentration as he slipped down the dark passageways. "_Do you read me?_"

"_Yeah_, _I read you. What's your status?_" Bumblebee ducked behind an alcove to concentrate on Sideswipe, the halls silent around him.

"_We're bunkered down in a small...uh...hole. We're next to some sort of elevator shaft."_

"_A hole? What are you doing in there?"_ Bumblebee was alarmed. _"This wasn't part of the plan..."_

"_I know, but Sunstreaker's getting a little too heavy to carry, and-"_

"_You shut your mouth,_" Sunstreaker interrupted, hazily. He sounded weak, but his aggressive streak was obviously intact. "_I'm doing just...ugh...fine._"

"_This isn't the time to kid around. I'm risking my servos to save you here. What in the Pit are you doing there? You know you were supposed to make your way back up here._" Bumblebee hissed through the com, feeling like he was being led further in without a choice in the matter. He wanted to be anywhere but where he was, and the twins were making that harder than it should have been.

"_I know," _Sideswipe said, quickly trying to deter Bumblebee's wrath_. "But there's something here we really think you should see._"

Bumblebee blinked, trying to be control his annoyance. "_What is there in a Decepticon base that could possibly interest me, Sideswipe? Other than the exit._"

"_Would a huge elevator shaft that leads down into the earth interest you?_"

"_Not particularly, no._" Bumblebee said, dismissively. "_Why?_"

"_Would an elevator shaft that goes down into the earth with Soundwave and a couple of drones on board interest you?_"

Bumblebee froze tensely. "_Are you two_ insane_? What could possibly compel you to actually _seek out_ Soundwave and follow him?_

"_We weren't seeking him out," Sideswipe argued. "We just happened to stumble on him."_

"_For the love of Primus," _Bumblebee swore. _"You two..." _He swung around the corner and picked up his pace again, running down the corridor, his ion cannon primed and ready in case he encountered any troops._ "Is Soundwave in the vicinity?"_

"_No. Like we said, he took the elevator down with some drones. No one's come back up."_

"_Stay exactly where you are, I'm coming to get you."_

Sunstreaker grunted. _"That almost sounded like an order."_

"_Consider it one," _Bumblebee said._ "I don't want Prime holding me responsible for the both of you getting slagged."_

"_Whatever you say, Bee," _Sunstreaker said in a low, subdued tone. "_Just get your aft down here quick. I'm dripping energon all down my chassis and I'd like to get it cleaned up before it rusts._"

Bumblebee just shook his head, feeling somewhat disgruntled at Sunstreaker's misplaced humor. He slammed his fist on a door lock, and it opened with a _whoosh_. Bumblebee found himself frozen in his tracks, spark freezing as his energon stopped. He was face to face with a Decepticon drone troop, about three heads taller than him and holding a weapon that dwarfed his ion blaster in comparison. The two stared at each other for a split second, taking in the surprise, but Bumblebee could see the processor spinning behind this drone's single-eyed gaze.

The Autobot reacted first, leaping forward and punching it in the chest with a loud crunch. The Decepticon stumbled back, losing its weapon as Bumblebee followed up with a swift kick, knocking the enemy flat against the stone wall. Beside the drone there was a door laid into the wall, and after some split-second thinking, Bumblebee threw it open, simultaneously grabbing the Decepticon by the chassis. He pushed with all his strength, throwing the Decepticon into the room, where it fell back against the ground with nothing to stop its forced descent.

The Decepticon got up and and ran towards him, but Bumblebee quickly slammed the door closed just as the massive body on the other end collided with the thick plating. Raising his ion cannon, he blasted the lock, causing it to explode in a shower of sparks as it fused the handle shut.

Bumblebee turned quickly, systems running hot with the rush of his encounter, and with a quickened pulse he fled back down the hall. He hoped that he'd make it to the Autobot twins before they did something royally stupid.

* * *

><p>By the time Bumblebee had made it to the location that Sideswipe had pinged on his internal radar, he had worked up enough frustration to just about take it out on the both of them. He ran down a grated ramp, ducking under low-hanging pipes and skipping over vents in the floor, and finally crashed through a door at the far end which opened out into a huge cavernous room, filled with overhanging cargo nets and secured equipment.<p>

On the far end was the elevator shaft the twins had observed. It was gigantic, two double doors with meshing over the outside and thick metal plating. At first Bumblebee didn't see any sign of the twins, until he saw a small blinking light in a far corner, followed by a hushed, "_Hey! What do you think you're doing? Get out of the open!_"

Bumblebee angrily made his way over to the small blinking light. It was coming from a deep recess in the wall, about half his height. Some mesh plating had been removed and placed inconspicuously behind a huge crate. Bumblebee crouched, sticking his head into the low gap, coming face to face with Sideswipe, who was fumbling with a small indicator light on his shoulder cannon.

"What in Primus' name do you-" Bumblebee was abruptly interrupted by Sideswipe, who reached out and grabbed him, pulling him down and into the hole.

"Are you insane? Get inside here before someone sees you!"

Bumblebee glowered angrily. "Everyone was waiting for you up there. What are you doing jeopardizing the mission?"

"Come on, Bumblebee." Sideswipe complained. "This is a great chance to see what the Decepticons are up to."

"Frankly I don't really care right now. I'm more concerned with getting Allison and Sari out of here."

"Misplaced your human, 'Bee?" Sunstreaker muttered. Bumblebee didn't appreciate the joke at all.

"That's it, you two... I don't care how injured you are, I'm dragging your sorry afts out of-"

His words were interrupted by a very loud and rather frightening drone of metal. Something hummed in the air, and the three Autobots stared out of the hole, trying to figure out what the noise was. Bumblebee was the first.

"The elevator..."

"It's coming up!" Sideswipe said.

There was a brief pause, then Bumblebee spoke. "Move back...quickly!" The three of them tried to squeeze further back into the recess to stay hidden. It was a tight fit as there were dark, oily pipes wedging their large bulk in. Bumblebee had no time to wonder just how long it had taken the Decepticons to modify the stone around them to suit their needs.

They stared out of the hole, half of their vision obscured by a metal crate. The visible half gave them a clear view of the elevator. A few moments later the humming stopped with a massive clang, and the doors rattled. A few seconds later, they opened, and out of it stepped the hulking image of Soundwave.

The Decepticon took a few steps into the room, and then moved aside to let a few soldiers into the room. They seemed to be busying themselves with the equipment in the room, collecting it and carrying it into the elevator. Soundwave stood up straight, and seemed to be occupied with something. Bumblebee and the twins froze, trying not to make a sound. Soundwave then sounded out an order;

"Ravage; eject." The Autobots' energon froze as something on Soundwave's chest rearranged itself, and out of it sprang a small, box-like shape which transformed in mid-air, altering its form into that of a panther-like creature. It hit the ground with a heavy clang, and immediately began an organized scout of the room, head swinging back and forth as if it was smelling the surroundings. Soundwave turned back to watching over the drones. At one point he grabbed a nearby drone that was carrying something by the shoulder, giving it a rough shake. He spoke in deep Cybertronian, angrily, and then shoved the drone roughly away. The drone hurriedly placed the object back down, then rushed over to engage with something else.

Bumblebee's eyes were on Ravage as he stalked the perimeter. He was on the far side of the room, but it wasn't going to take him long to reach their hiding place and find their little hole. Bumblebee had no choice; he slowly leaned forward, exposing his head and shoulders. Sideswipe almost blurted out a noise in shock, but managed to contain himself. Soundwave's back was to him, but he still felt petrified as he reached out for the grating. Ever so quietly, he lifted it off the ground, fingers gripping the mesh tightly so that it didn't make any noise.

At one point Soundwave shifted his weight, and Bumblebee froze, his arms still outstretched. The grating wasn't heavy, but he wasn't sure how long he could hold it with just his finger tips. After a brief moment, he resumed pulling it back, scuttling back slowly on his elbows as he pulled the grating up against the hole. He let go, but knew that he was going to be unable to lock it from his position. The three remained still, not daring to shift.

Bumblebee was wondering where Ravage was, when suddenly the lighting on the other side of the grating was obscured by four slender legs. It caused the light inside the hole to play against their faces as they waited with bated intakes. Ravage's head came down then, and it seemed to sniff the air. The heavy snorting sounds echoed in the recess, and Bumblebee's spark fluttered nervously. He slowly raised his arm, pointing his ion cannon at the grating. He had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it was looking like there was no other option. Ravage's snout touched the grating, causing it to move slightly. Bumblebee prepared to initiate his canon, when suddenly Soundwave barked out a new order.

"Ravage; return."

The Decepticon creature didn't hesitate, defaulting to its master's command and ignoring its hunch. Bumblebee remained frozen, as did the twins, as they saw rough shapes moving behind the mesh. They heard metal slamming against metal, followed by the sound of the heavy doors rattling. There was a huge clang as the doors closed, followed by the noise of the elevator descending.

Bumblebee waited for a few moments to confirm that no one was coming back up. Once he was sure, he exited the hole quickly, the twins climbing out behind him. He looked around the empty room, optics searching for hidden enemies.

"Well," Sideswipe said. "That wasn't so bad-"

Bumblebee turned around quickly and grabbed the Autobot by the shoulder. "Are you two fragging nuts? Do you have any idea whatsoever how _stupid_ that was?"

"I think we were pretty well hidden in that hole..." Sideswipe's continued bravado was way past the point of annoying Bumblebee, which was almost as rare as Wheeljack's recent mood swings.

"You shouldn't have even _been_ in there," Bumblebee fumed, optics searching around the room as the heated energon circled his system. Even with the elevator gone, he didn't feel safe in the room, and they needed to roll out and meet up with Wheeljack. Hopefully he and the others had found Sari by now.

"Look," Sunstreaker said, finally joining the conversation. "You found us and rescued us. Hooray. On the bright side..." He gestured towards the elevator. "...We did find some useful data on this place. Frankly, I think it's about time we were on the offensive."

"Your disregard for even basic _orders_ is offensive, Sunstreaker. This was a _rescue_ mission. You've already caused enough trouble as it is…" Sunstreaker's face turned sour, but the smaller yellow Autobot was too incense to care. "The whole point of this was to get everyone back to safety." Bumblebee took a step back, trying to give himself some space. "I know, you're right. This _is_ good intel; really good. But... we just want you back safe, even if you do drive everyone insane. You don't need to prove yourself by running off into danger _when we're trying to rescue you."_

There was an awkward silence for a moment as the group tangled with their conflicted emotions. Sideswipe was the typical icebreaker. "You have to admit," he said. "It _was_ fun."

Bumblebee turned to look at the Autobot. "You... are mentally unhinged."  
><strong><br>**


	26. The Breakdown

**AN: Wow, it has been a very long time since I've updated. I actually needed to take a break from the fandom for a while after getting tired of a lot of the drama, but I think I'm just about ready to come back and finish what I started. My attitude has changed a lot about the content going forward, so I'll be making some adjustments from my original outline. It may be immediately noticeable, but I likely won't be going back to previous chapters and making changes-I'm not happy with a lot of the older content, but I don't foresee a complete "reboot" any time _soon_. It's on my mind however, and if I manage to scrounge up some time between real life and a brand new story I'm working on I may at some point revisit this story from the beginning and make some changes. I may even completely retcon how Allison comes to know Wheeljack, but _that_ really depends on how motivated I feel.**

**If you've stuck around, then I appreciate it immensely. I don't really have time for a recap, but if you really are committed just skim through the previous chappie. :p**

* * *

><p>It was hard to express in words exactly how Allison was feeling at that moment, as she sat in Wheeljack's company en-route to where Bumblebee had left Sari. What she had been through, all of Knock Out's threats and his treatment of her had left her in something of a daze, but rather than relief she found that all she felt was a confused mixture of despair and frustration. She was starting to feel doubts.<p>

Wheeljack didn't speak, and that was probably for the better. Truthfully Allison wasn't sure how she would receive any attempts at friendly conversation with him. She wasn't angry with him, but she was finding that her enthusiasm for being in his company**—**in _their _company**—**was starting to wane. It wasn't a reflection on him, but rather her situation: the Decepticons had used her as bait for their trap. She didn't want to be a part of that.

It was becoming clear in her mind, churning in an annoying whirlpool of doubt and resentment, that this would be a circle that would never be broken. This happened before, and it would happen again. The Decepticons were not above using live bait. In fact, that seemed to be one of their favorite methods. They would continue to use her, and any other human for that matter, against the Autobots, and Allison was starting to weigh the pro's and con's of her situation in her mind. As long as she was around, the Autobots would be in a constant struggle to place her needs in front of their own. They would go to great lengths to protect her, and humanity, and sooner or later it was going to get one of them killed. It was going to get Wheeljack killed.

She would have to leave him.

This thought was followed by a sick lump of uncertainty that settled in the pit of her stomach. How could she do that... leave him without him most assuredly hunting her down? Or the Decepticons for that matter? The answer to that was nothing. She could leave, hide herself in the most remote of places on the planet, and somehow she knew Wheeljack would find her; the Decepticons would find her. The Decepticons had already proven that they were not above collateral damage. They wouldn't care if she tried to remove herself from the fight, because to them, she was a resource that could always be exploited.

Exploitation was not something that Allison could continue to allow. She was not a pawn, and refused to be manipulated as one. When she had met Wheeljack, her life had been stagnant. His appearance in her life had given her a purpose she'd never thought she would have, but the excitement and breathless exuberance she once felt was replaced now only with terror and a burrowing realization that she was killing him. She didn't fear Wheeljack, but it was time to really, truly fear what could happen to him, or any other Autobot should she continue to inadvertently put them in danger.

She would have to disappear; completely and thoroughly.

But Sari was another matter. Allison couldn't leave Sari behind, and this was hardly the time to just follow any road and abandon everything that was going on. She'd have to see this through to the end, and ensure Sari was safely returned back into the arms of her father. She could figure out what she would need to do later, possibly even speak to Agent Fowler. Surely he would know what to do. He worked for the government after all, and she had no doubts that a human's best interest would be on his mind if she came to him with her concerns. He would probably be _thrilled_ to get her out of harm's way, as he hadn't been overly enthusiastic about her being put in it in the first place.

Wheeljack could not know what she was thinking. Allison knew the very utterance of her thoughts and doubts would break his heart, and that wasn't her intent. She didn't want to leave him, that much was certain, but she couldn't be selfish. Wheeljack had more on his plate than Allison could ever comprehend, and her presence was only complicating things whether he would admit it or not. Now it would be her turn to protect him, and to do that, she would need to let him go.

Either way, she would crush him. That was unavoidable. Allison thought it would be more merciful to make a clean break and simply force him to accept it.

For now, Allison settled in silence, and Wheeljack must have sensed that she wasn't ready to talk so he remained quiet. The Autobot seemed content, the steady rumbling of his engine a sign that he was at least calm for the moment, and rather than think further on her guilt-ridden musings Allison let that lull her into a false comfort for the time being.

In front and above them, Starscream, yet another complication, flew slowly, which was an odd vision in of itself; a large military jet nearly keeping pace with a comparatively smaller vehicle. The contrast was unnerving as much as it was mildly fascinating, but it only served to make Allison's role in all this that much more severe. She couldn't believe that the same Decepticon that had nearly ended her life was flying just a few feet above her head, unusually subservient and following Wheeljack's every order without question. She wasn't fooled. Starscream was playing his own game, and she had no doubts that he had a plan of his own turning in his head. Wheeljack, given his own history with the Decepticon, would constantly be on high-alert for her sake which would only prove to be a further distraction—Starscream _would_ kill her as soon as the opportunity presented itself, and the amount of damage Wheeljack took trying to stall that fate was merely a game of probability. It was too much of a risk to take.

Shaking her head, she tried to get rid of the imagery and forget about the whole issue for the time being, at least until she could fully think things through. Allison truthfully wasn't even really sure how she felt about Wheeljack's oddly-placed trust in the Decepticon. He had been ready to tear the Decepticon apart just a few short weeks ago. Now, he had the Seeker collared and following him around like some sort of guard dog. She just hoped for now that Wheeljack knew what he was doing, and that whatever this Immobilizer collar was held up to its name.

"How much further?" Allison asked, finally unable to bear the silence anymore. She figured if she didn't start talking sooner than later it would become obvious to Wheeljack that something was wrong.

"Not long now. The coordinates 'Bee gave me should be just over that rise there..." Wheeljack's voice was soft, and her heart lifted just to hear him speak, but then plummeted almost immediately. His tone was optimistic, maybe too much so. If only she wouldn't have to kill that optimism to do what she needed to do.

A few minutes later the small, abandoned buildings came into view.

"Sari should be in one of these buildings somewhere."

"This looks like... an old boom town... from the mines near here," Allison thought. When the mines had been abandoned, the town had probably died. With nothing left to keep them sustained, people had just up and left. There were these types of towns all over the country, but she'd never been aware that there had been any as far east as Minnesota. "This has to be really old."

"From what I can gather, this place has been here since the early 1800's," Wheeljack said, almost conversationally. He'd probably Google'd it between the time the buildings had first appeared and when she'd opened her mouth.

"That can't really seem like that long a time to you," Allison said. It was easy to forget just how old Wheeljack was compared to her. When this town had been active, it was nothing more than a blip in time to the Autobot.

"To me? No. But I can understand how long it must seem to you. Besides, sometimes the centuries seem to fly by..."

It might have been an attempt at lightening the mood, but Allison wasn't particularly eager for it, and Wheeljack seemed to realize that. He grew silent as they drove into the center of the town, driving down the wide dirt road into what was left of the town's center. Old buildings on both sides seemed to creak in the cooling evening, the shimmer of moonlight reflecting off the dirtied glass that remained in the windows around them.

Allison stared through Wheeljack's windshield and her blood turned to ice as panic shot up her spine. Up ahead was a large fountain in disrepair. The water had long since gone, and the stone was cracked and dirtied from years of being left alone. What caught Allison's attention, however, was what was on top of the fountain.

"Oh no..." Allison breathed, and she found herself pushing her way out of Wheeljack's door, stumbling as she hit the ground and made a mad dash for the fountain. There was the rushed whir of Wheeljack transforming behind her, and it all took place in less than a second as he quickly reached forward and grabbed her, holding her back.

Tied to the top of the fountain was Sari. She was bound by a heavy looking chain, halfway up towards the top of the fountain, which was high enough so that her feet didn't touch the ground. She was gagged, and looked like she might have been crying as her face was streaked with the trails of tears through the dirt on her cheeks. Her hair was disheveled out of the messy ponytail she'd been wearing, falling into her face as she tried to yell something to them.

"What are you doing?! We have to help her!" Allison yelled at him as she struggled for Wheeljack to let go. She was rather tired of robot hands grabbing at her like she was some sort of disobedient pet, and even though Wheeljack was no threat to her, at that moment it didn't seem to matter. It was all just too much.

"It's obviously a trap," Wheeljack said, pulling her back. Above him, Starscream transformed, landing beside Wheeljack with a heavy boom and a sneer on his face enough to make Allison's blood boil.

"Really," Starscream mumbled, sarcastically. "And whatever gave you that impression?"

"We can't just leave her there!" Allison said, looking at Starscream with hostility. She hated talking to him, feeling completely intruded on by the Decepticon who by all sense of sanity simply shouldn't have been there. Wheeljack had lost it. There was no other explanation.

A thought seemed to pass over Starscream's mind, and his mouth quirked into a knowing smile. It was an expression Allison had grown to hate. "The human female is right. _I_ should go rescue the little one..." Starscream placed a hand regally over his chest, as if he were bestowing some vow upon himself.

"No you don't," Wheeljack immediately growled, and Allison shared his lack of enthusiasm for the idea. "I don't trust you enough for that." He said roughly, echoing Allison's own thoughts. He'd finally released his choke hold on her shirt and stood, squaring himself towards the Decepticon in preparation for a fight.

"I'm wearing your infernal Immobilizer, Wheeljack. There's nothing I can do that could put her in any kind of risk." Starscream said, scowling. "Not unless I wanted to risk my own hide, which is not a chance I'm willing to take. Besides, if this _is_ a Decepticon trap, who better to go fetch her..." Starscream extended his arms dramatically, an unapologetic sneer on his face. "…Then a Decepticon?"

Wheeljack looked extremely skeptical, but Allison could tell that he was seriously considering what Starscream was saying. In some logical part of her brain, Allison had to admit that it did make a _little_ bit of sense, but that wasn't entirely the point. Putting Sari in harm's way was simply unacceptable. She was about to say so when Wheeljack spoke up first.

"Fine, but I'm _watching_ you. And I'm _right_ behind you."

"Are you _crazy_?!" Allison turned to Wheeljack and looked up at him, angrily. She didn't like Starscream's nasty, confident smile, like he knew exactly what he was doing. He had something up his sleeve; there was no way he didn't. Her already conflicted feelings about being in the Autobot's company ran in circles with this current source of discomfort and she was finding it hard to give one thought attention over the other.

Wheeljack nodded, and gave Starscream a look that indicated the Decepticon had better start moving. He looked down at Allison and gave her a light push back, and immediately she knew that this was her queue to stay put. She didn't like the idea of Wheeljack following Starscream straight into a trap, but it was obvious to her that she wasn't going to be heard as the voice of reason at that moment, no matter how unhinged Wheeljack appeared. All she could do was watch as the Decepticon practically strutted down the path with an indifferent shrug, Wheeljack following close behind.

"Don't worry, little human" Starscream practically sang as he walked down the road. "I'm just coming to get you, you've nothing to fear." Allison could tell Sari did not look happy one bit about the visage coming to greet her, and she still seemed to be struggling to yell something out. Allison then noticed that Starscream seemed to be flexing his fingers.

"Starscream," Wheeljack warned, "Stop scaring her..." he paused, and raised his hands in a gesture of peace for Sari to see, perhaps trying to convince the young girl that everything was fine. Allison could see Sari struggling, but making no progress against her bonds as she looked at the two massive robots coming towards her. Allison felt her heart plummet, and just watching Sari so terrified made her feel powerless. She felt compelled to _do_ something, feeling instinctively protective of the little girl, but she had been _told_ to stay put. That wasn't sitting well with her.

"I'm not scaring her," the Decepticon said. "I'm merely comforting her with soothing words." He turned his attention back to the Sari. "It's alright, little human. Old Starscream is here to free you from your captive bonds. No longer will you be shackled to that**—**ARGHHH!"

Something to Wheeljack's left exploded. The outside wall of an old building burst outwards in a mass bombardment of broken wood and splinters. A giant blue shape flew out with it, crashing into the Autobot with a heaving crunch as the conjoined mass fell. The two clashing shapes rolled on the ground in a tangled mess of struggling limbs, and Allison's eyes searched the flailing metal bodies, desperate to make out what it was that had attacked Wheeljack. Starscream stood behind them in the clouds of kicked up dust, looking down in bewilderment with his arms raised in confusion. He appeared just as surprised as Allison felt which at least meant he hadn't been privy to the obvious ambush.

When the two bodies stopped moving, Allison found that she'd taken several leaping steps back to put as much distance between herself and the fight as she could, and she could finally see who was on the other side of that scuffle. Breakdown had Wheeljack pinned, and the white Autobot was struggling to lift the heavier Decepticon off of him.

"Hah!" Breakdown apparently felt victorious, judging by the arrogance in his voice. "I knew you'd be along sooner or later!" The Decepticon looked up, having just noticed the thin, gray and blue pair of feet standing just inside his field of vision. "_Starscream?!_ What are you doing here?" the larger Decepticon clearly had not been anticipating Starscream's presence, which at least solidified the idea that this had not been collaborative. She'd give Starscream _that_ at least. "I thought you were Autobot scrap by now."

"Autobot _scrap_?! _ME?!_" Starscream growled harshly, but his words were shaking as if he wasn't quite committed to what he was saying. "I would suggest that _you_ pay closer attention to what you're doing, otherwise you'll be scrap yourself**—**"

Breakdown suddenly yelled out in pain as Wheeljack's fists pounded into his face, having taken advantage of the Decepticon's lapse in concentration. Wheeljack used the opportunity to kick Breakdown off of him, and the two grabbed each other, neither of them gaining much ground as they tried to knock each other down. They traded blows, Breakdown's greater size and weight eventually managing to lock Wheeljack into a tight grip.

"What are you waiting for, Starscream?!" Breakdown yelled. "Shoot him!"

Starscream stood back, waving his hands in surrender with a pained expression on his face. Allison could immediately tell what had the Decepticon so conflicted, as he pointed urgently at the collar around his neck.

"With _what?! _ I _can't_! I'm not getting slagged for _you_, you brutish four-wheeler!" Starscream shrilled, voice high as he jabbed a finger at the collar he wore. It was only then that Allison noticed Starscream's null-ray cannons were missing. Wheeljack hadn't _entirely_ lost his mind enough to actually _arm_ the Decepticon. It hardly mattered, because Breakdown clearly wasn't getting the message.

"What?!" Breakdown looked completely lost, only half focused as he struggled with the Autobot who was making a valiant attempt to break out of his tight headlock. Breakdown didn't seem to be the sharpest tool in the shed, but he clearly had the physical upper hand in the situation.

"He's... he's got me trapped! Crushed underneath his finger! I can't do it! I can't**—**" Starscream was babbling now, alternating between pointing at his own neck and taking panicked steps backwards as Breakdown slowly tried to drag Wheeljack's struggling form towards him. Starscream was shooting panicked looks between Wheeljack**—**split between trying to get the Decepticon off him and reaching down to press the Immobilizer button on his arm**—**and Breakdown, who looked like he wanted to kill him.

"Primus, damn it Starscream! Shoot him or I'll have to explain this to Megatron!" Breakdown looked at the frightened looking Decepticon Seeker with a disgusted look on his face. Wheeljack used the opportunity to bring his head back, cracking Breakdown right in the nose plates. The Decepticon reeled back to grab at the offended area, losing his grip on the Autobot. Wheeljack ran forward a few steps, spinning around to face the Decepticon, who was now leaking energon from his nose.

"Huh, you're not bad," Breakdown scoffed, wiping at his face. "Funny, I thought you'd put up less of a fight. You scientist types are usually the runts of the litter." He looked over at Starscream, who was a cross between panic and sickness as he looked between them.

"Not all of us are," Wheeljack said, looking big with wings standing on end aggressively. "We're not all sniveling cowards, like _some_." Starscream made an indecipherable noise from his own corner, half between a snarl and a gasp as he looked like one caught between two parents arguing.

Breakdown turned to look at Starscream with a wry smile. "So, this Autobot has you prisoner, huh?"

Starscream looked a little nervous. "Ah... prisoner is such a _strong _word..."

Breakdown scoffed again. "We were wondering where you'd run off to. Should have figured you were dumb enough to get nabbed by a couple of Autobots."

"He's stronger than he looks," Starscream growled pointing at Wheeljack, offended. "_Don't_ underestimate him."

Breakdown grunted. "I don't plan to." Breakdown reached down quickly, a blaster unfolding from a compartment on his hip. He brought it up to Wheeljack's face, only to find that the Autobot had done exactly the same, pulling his own blaster from his back with practiced precision.

"Seems we're at an impasse," Wheeljack said stonily.

"So it seems," Breakdown said. "But I have one advantage."

"Oh? And what's that?" Wheeljack inquired, sounding far too confident than Allison thought he should be. She was watching him with a gun to his face, outnumbered, because she didn't believe for a second that Starscream was suddenly as docile as he was acting to be. She knew what ultimately came next in a stand-off. Someone was going to shoot, and there was a 50-50 chance that Wheeljack would be on the losing end of that encounter.

"Starscream," Breakdown said, confidently. From her vantage point behind the fray, Allison saw his eyes dart towards the other Decepticon. Starscream's face seemed to go pale as his eyes flashed, appearing startled as he backed away.

"What!? I have no part in this!" Starscream cried, voice strained.

"Damn it, Starscream!" Breakdown shouted, distracted.

"It wouldn't matter anyway," Wheeljack said, interrupting them. "I have an advantage too."

Breakdown looked around. "I don't see anyone."

"It's my pinpoint accuracy. I have built-in stabilizers and mathematical projection nodes that enhance my aim. I could shoot you through your optic from 50 miles."

"Nobody's that good," Breakdown growled, disbelieving, but his eyes shifted revealing a nervous doubt in Wheeljack's favor.

"Try me."

The two stared each other down for a few agonizing minutes. Suddenly Breakdown's gun fired first, a violent burst that made Allison jump from the explosive crack. Wheeljack's blaster went flying from his grip as he emitted a startled flurry of curses. It land with a heavy _thunk_ about 5 meters behind Allison as she ducked. Seeing it hurtling through the air in her direction had instilled a sense of alarm she'd never felt before.

Breakdown quickly took advantage of Wheeljack's distraction and moved forward, his gun aimed for the kill.

There were a few moments of stunned silence as the dust settled, the quiet palpable as Wheeljack took a step back, with his arms up and his blaster hand still smoking. He placed himself in front of Allison, simultaneously maneuvering himself to have both Decepticons in his field of vision. Looking around herself, Allison tried to plan out if there was a way she could slip around and get to Sari, but she'd have to double around, and the likelihood that either Decepticon came after her as soon as she bolted was pretty high. Wheeljack must have sensed the same thing based on the protective stance he took, and she imagined a myriad of possible plans flowing through his head. She hoped none of them resulted in the two of them being turned into charred husks-

Blaster fire coming from behind them both suddenly revealed that they were no longer alone, as the rest of their Autobot party finally arrived. Their timing couldn't have been more absurdly opportune.

Allison took the opportunity to get out of their way, veering to the side and only stopping once the full image of Breakdown came into her field of vision directly in her path. She didn't want to even attempt getting around him, especially now that he was moving quickly to find cover from the Autobot retaliation. She covered her head as she felt the electrified blaster fire sail over her in both directions; from behind her, and in front of her as Breakdown returned fire.

Finally an Autobot got in a lucky hit, and Breakdown's blaster was knocked out of his grip as it flew several yards away. The Decepticon walked backwards with a stunned look on his face, arms raised in half-surrender as his searing eyes swept around him, likely looking for a way out. Allison caught the flash of colors as Bumblebee and Sideswipe rushed past her, flanking Wheeljack as he backed slowly away to let the armed combatants take center.

"Hold it, Breakdown!" Bumblebee shouted out, aiming down the sights of his gun. "We have you outgunned, so come quietly." Bumblebee was stepping sideways towards the fountain, trying to get close to Sari to block her from the Decepticon's reach. Allison was about to step around and return to Wheeljack who had fallen back to retreat to his downed blaster, but when she turned abruptly she narrowly avoided colliding with Sunstreaker's leg. She habitually froze, still not sure what to expect from him despite realizing in his current condition he couldn't be a threat even if he wanted too—old habit, and it was probably time to just let it go that he'd _kidnapped her and thrown her onto a train_. He was in a terrible state anyway, leaning slightly to the side, free hand holding his waist painfully. Looking up at him, she could tell he was trying to force a determined expression, but it kept slipping into a pained grimace.

Allison realized she was caught staring with an expression that quickly went back and forth between relief and uncertainty, and then embarrassment as Sunstreaker finally seemed to notice that she was there once he glanced down. The oddest expression passed over his face before he gestured for her to get behind him—obviously an expression of genuine concern and _care_. It was almost like the Autobot was _happy_ to see her. Allison wasn't sure what to think about that. He looked terrible.

Breakdown growled, a sound that reminded Allison that there was very much a battle of wills going on around them. "Not on your life, Autobot!" He looked at Starscream. "You coming, or not?"

Starscream merely gulped, looking quite horrified with his situation and conflicted on what he should do; if he chose to run with the Decepticon would Wheeljack choose to detonate his little Immobilizer device? Breakdown really didn't give Starscream enough time to weigh all his options, and with a growl, he shoved the Seeker in the chest. The flurry of motion which ensued as Starscream fell gave Breakdown just enough time to quickly turn and give the base of Sari's impromptu prison a resonating crack with his fist.

The blow knocked out a gaping chunk of rock, causing the entire structure to shake and slowly teeter sideways as its own support failed. Sari tried to scream through her gag as Bumblebee lurched towards it, throwing up his hands to catch it and prevent the small spire from collapsing on top of the little girl. Breakdown had already transformed into his alt mode, speeding off quickly, shots from the other Autobot's weapons pinging off his thick hide as he disappeared in a cloud of dust.

Bumblebee barely had to struggle with the base of the spire, and he slowly lowered it to the ground so that Sari was safely on the topside. He wasted no time in loosening the chain around her body, and as soon as the girl was free she jumped up and latched herself around his face with a desperate cry of relief. Bumblebee held her looking overwhelmed, and the two of them joyfully reunited, while Sunstreaker limped past Allison to join Sideswipe at Bumblebee's side.

"Sorry I'm so late," Bumblebee muttered in apology. "I would have gotten here sooner, but two really annoying guys I know held me up," he said with a small smirk.

"It's okay," Sari said, wiping her face clean with a sleeve. "I forgive you."

Bumblebee looked up at Wheeljack, who was fiddling with Starscream's collar. The Decepticon had managed to keep his footing after such a heavy shove had been lobbed on him, and was trying to escape Wheeljack's reach but failing. Whenever he managed to gain distance Wheeljack would yank him back by the chest.

"You know it works!" Starscream complained with a growling yelp. "Do you really need to do this? I didn't exactly fire on you, did I?"

Wheeljack continued with his adjustments, which Allison found completely beyond her as he seemed to pull at various pieces, before eventually letting the Decepticon go.

"You didn't exactly help us out, either. I've altered it a little more so that you'll feel a little more...motivated...next time."

Starscream let out a frustrated growl. "This is humiliating."

"It's called being safe." Wheeljack turned and walked over to where Bumblebee and the twins were standing. Allison followed him, noticing the... unpleasant look he was throwing in Sunstreaker's direction. She had a feeling she knew where this was going.

"I think we should head back," Sunstreaker was saying. "We also need to tell Prime what we found." He spotted Wheeljack walking over, and his expression changed to one of clear shame. The Autobot held out his hand in a surprisingly open display of apology. "Wheeljack, I'm so**—**"

His words were cut off when Wheeljack's fist sliced through the air, hitting Sunstreaker in the face. There was no bravado or swagger to it; it was a fast, clean and a thoroughly nasty punch that knocked Sunstreaker's head right back.

Wheeljack's eyes blazed. "You need to speak, and you need to speak fast."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: As is likely obvious, I got a little creative with the "history" of the area but it was just the type of place I needed so I took some liberties. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!<strong>


	27. Fisticuffs

**A/N: Brand new chapter. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>They all knew it was coming, and not even Sunstreaker's quick reflexes could prevent him from dodging the blow that came straight towards his face. It was just a single, sharp hit to the jaw, but it was enough to send the already-injured Autobot reeling backward. Sideswipe hurried to try and catch his brother and prevent him from falling over, but he found himself sprawled out on the ground next to him. Wheeljack was very unconcerned.<p>

"Wheeljack! What are you doing?!" Allison interjected angrily, trying to force her way in the middle, but her small size kept her from drawing too close to the much larger bodies at odds with one-another. Wheeljack ignored her as he pulled Sunstreaker from Sideswipe's proximity, forcing him to his feet by the dented plates at the collar. Sideswipe, in a sudden bid for hopeful freedom tried to bolt from striking range, but he was yanked back by the helm as Wheeljack grabbed the long, slender protrusion at the side of his head. The high-pitched yelp was the only noise Sideswipe was allowed before he was swung around to meet the enraged Autobot face-to-face alongside his stunned brother.

They watched each other with tense eyes for what felt like an eternity, neither twin daring to move for fear of instilling Wheeljack's wrath; the clarity of the anger in his sharply glowing eyes was only undercut but the impossibly aggressive stance his body took. Hunched over the twins like an enraged raptor just waiting for them to move, the vision was even more convincing by the rigid posture of his rotating fins like the tense wings of an eagle with prey caught in its talons. Allison felt a displaced sense of fear watching the three bodies still and unmoving, remembering that this was the part of Wheeljack that still terrified her, and what made it even worse, was that she knew it was so unlike him. It was killing him, because this overly dramatic display of domination was because of her, and she knew him enough to be fully convinced that he just didn't have it in him; this _shouldn't_ be happening, and it _couldn't_ continue.

Bumblebee looked like he was going to pull his own horns off, unsure of what to do and if he should intervene. Sari was at his feet with skin that had gone three shades lighter than her normally olive color, but she looked barely more concerned than she probably should have been. Allison wasn't sure if Bumblebee _could_ intervene even if he wanted to, as Wheeljack seemed damned determined to spill blood—or energon. It wasn't like she was faring any better, as it was obvious that Wheeljack's focus had become so narrowed that he was acting on auto-pilot without any regard for her opinion on what had happened to cause this _whole mess_. She was feeling completely ignored, even though she was very much involved.

"I deserved that," Sunstreaker finally said, with a voice that nearly warbled. He probably wasn't sure if opening his mouth meant imminent physical harm or not, but Sideswipe winced with the idea apparently in his mind.

Wheeljack remained unmoving for a moment, but a glimmer of surprise passed over his eyes and they softened a touch before he spoke. "No comments about your appearance, Sunstreaker?"

"Look at me, 'Jack. Does that really look like something I should be concerned with right now?" Sunstreaker said with a pained grimace as he pawed at the stronger Autobot's grip on his chest, trying to get him to let go. Allison had thought the twins had been strong, but seeing Wheeljack overpower _both_ of them was a bit of an unpleasant shock.

"Don't call me that. I don't like you right now," Wheeljack snorted, the sound more of a gnarled burst of air from his vents that made both Sunstreaker and Sideswipe flinch as he gave them a rough shake. "I'm not too fond of _either_ of you at the moment." Sideswipe whimpered in response to this, shaking his head in surrender.

"I didn't even do anything!" Sideswipe complained, voice high and far too shaky for the point of defiance he was trying to get across. His eyes went to Bumblebee, pleading for him to step in, but the yellow Autobot shook his head with a jolted shrug of his shoulders as if to say _what the hell do you want me to do?_

"Shut _up_," Wheeljack growled in warning. "I think it's time we sat and had a nice, _long_ discussion about your latest shenanigans, as we're far overdue. I am fully expecting that you two will dazzle me with your excuses—"

Sideswipe's eyes were rolling nervously as he laughed. The noise was small, and fairly weak, but he lifted a tentative finger in offering.

"Actually... it was _one_ shenanigan..._his_ shenanigan I might add," Sideswipe paused, finger still raised but hesitantly pointed at his brother, who was now glaring murderous daggers into him. "Technically, it was more of a hi-jink—"

"_Hi-jink?!_" Wheeljack bellowed, the sudden cadence of his voice so loud and overpowering that it was almost unintelligible to Allison's ears. The very air around them shook with all the violence of a sonic boom as his voice carried through the trees, the vibration palpable in her bones.

"Wheeljack! _Enough_!" Allison tried again to be heard, sick of watching such a stupid display of dominance, but unsurprisingly in this state he ignored her. She may as well have not even been standing there.

"Is that what you call this?! Locking up a defenseless human in a train and letting them get captured by Decepticons?" Wheeljack wasn't finished as he gave Sideswipe a violent shake, but Bumblebee decided it was finally a good time to step in. He attempted to posture himself between Wheeljack's line of sight and the twins to the extent that his smaller size and position outside of the scientist's clutches would allow.

"It's not his fault, Wheeljack. Let him go."

Allison considered using this opportunity to say something more, but as she'd gone largely unheard up to this point she decided against it. Bumblebee must have noticed her grinding her jaw in frustration as she watched them, and as Wheeljack seemed no more interested in listening to him, he knelt near her in shared unknowing of what the hell to do.

"He's not listening to me," Allison ground out, unsure of why she was even saying it. What did she expect Bumblebee to do about it? There wasn't much he could do other than offer words that didn't really change this fact.

"They need to do this, Allison." Bumblebee said softly, and it took her a second to realize he was holding her back from walking in a direction she didn't realize she'd been going in. She didn't have the energy to fight him, so she stood still, her hands resting on Bumblebee's fingers without knowing what else to do with them. She had an urge to punch someone, but the only worthy faces were a great deal too large and solid for that to be anything other than painful. Once Sari managed to sneak her way around to them she had to abandon the entire notion from her mind. There was more than enough violence.

"Quite the show, you Autobots," Starscream noted, and Allison actually felt Bumblebee bristle next to her as soon as the Decepticon opened his mouth. Just the sound of his voice at such an inhospitable moment coaxed a visceral response from her being. "So _many_ emotions."

"So far I've only seen _one_ from you: cowardice," Bumblebee growled. "Suddenly not a lot of fight in you without the protection of your prison bars, huh?" The other Autobots currently absorbed in their own issues were not attentive to this side conversation happening as the Decepticon shied away, but the smile remained on his face.

Wheeljack stared at Sideswipe with a decidedly unfavorable glare, and shoved him away, apparently coming to the same conclusion that Bumblebee was trying to impress upon him just moments earlier. The real target of his anger was Sideswipe's brother anyway, and as Wheeljack zeroed in on Sunstreaker once more Sideswipe used the opportunity to regain his balance and step forward in his defense. Nothing verbal passed between them for a long time. Perhaps Wheeljack was sizing Sunstreaker up for any sort of clue as to what he'd do next, or maybe he was just trying to glean something from him that answered the question as to why he'd done what he'd done. Sunstreaker however didn't utter a word, and there was no visual clue that Allison could gather from the glaring contest that passed between them, although she could tell that there was a great deal of pain in his eyes.

A brief expression of guilt passed over Wheeljack's face for a moment, and suddenly he let Sunstreaker go. Allison exhaled, feeling a little bit of relief wash over her as Sunstreaker was afforded the opportunity to take a wobbling step back, if only to give himself room to breathe. At least this meant that things weren't going to get any more physical than they already had. The expression Wheeljack continued to give him, however, was no less mistrusting and absolutely murderous.

"Why did you do it?" Wheeljack finally asked, voice lowered but surprisingly calm. That was possibly what made it all the more intimidating; the suppressed probability of violence lying in wait underneath a calm, calculating exterior that was normally so bright and cheerful. In a way, the attempt to mask it only made it all the more poignant.

Sunstreaker stared away in a pitiful attempt to look at anything but Wheeljack or Sideswipe, unable to find the courage to look in the waiting eyes around him. "I don't know," he finally mustered, the words mumbled so low that they were nearly drowned out by Wheeljack's responding baritone rumble of disapproval.

"You and I both know that isn't true. Don't you _dare_ lie to me right now." Wheeljack pointed an accusing finger directly in Sunstreaker's face, the action so quick the yellow Autobot's reaction was nearly delayed. He flinched, expecting a fist, but froze once he realized he would not be receiving another crack in the face. Allison saw Sunstreaker's muted eyes pass between Wheeljack's face and his hand hovering near his own nose plates several times, perhaps still anticipating that Wheeljack would indeed suddenly reach out for his throat and strangle him to death.

Sunstreaker eventually emitted a long exhalation of air, eyes turning down. "I don't really have an answer for you that won't result in pissing you off any more than you already are—I'm not really sure I want to see what that's like right now—"

"Indulge me," Wheeljack pressed, cutting Sunstreaker off.

Sunstreaker looked like he hadn't decided if it was time to panic or appear obstinate, and it was only made more desperate by the fact that Wheeljack had chosen this time to not be generous with his patience.

Clearly Sunstreaker had not thought his little stunt through to the end, as it was evident that actually _facing_ Wheeljack after the deed had been done didn't even factor into his scheme. That was probably not unusual—doing things on the fly, spontaneously with very little regard for the aftermath—yet Allison thought that maybe the twinge at the back of her mind was just a tiny bit of sympathy for him.

"Surely you've had enough time to think about this," Wheeljack said, causing Sunstreaker to look at him with a small registration of anger on his face. Allison had to admire his guts, because she didn't think she'd be able to give _this_ Wheeljack the same glare that Sunstreaker was currently sporting.

"I was _tortured_, 'Jack."

"Stop calling me that. You willingly put Allison right on Knock Out's dissecting table, Sunstreaker. You're _lucky_ you have a brother that's just a _little bit_ smarter than you—"

"Err—" Sideswipe appeared as if he was about to interject when Wheeljack seemed to make a point to emphasize just how small that _little bit_ was, but any sort of bravery he'd managed to rile up quickly fizzled out once Wheeljack kept right on talking.

"—If I hadn't gotten here when I did, chained up in a Decepticon interrogation room would have been the least of your concerns. At least if they'd have ripped out your spark by that time it would have saved me the inconvenience."

"Well… I mean we did get here in time too…" Sideswipe offered quietly, but emitted a small _meep_ of surprise when Wheeljack rounded his gaze on him.

"Can't you see we're talkin' here?! _Don't_ interrupt." Wheeljack's command would have almost been hilarious, his accent making the words near stereotypical except for the fact that he looked serious levels of pissed off. Sideswipe knew that he wasn't completely in the clear and free from his own share of wrath yet, as Wheeljack was making it quite obvious that he wasn't beyond collateral damage.

"I was jealous, alright?" Sunstreaker blurted out suddenly, and it may have been an attempt to draw Wheeljack's attention back to him in defense of Sideswipe, but Allison had been watching his eyes the whole time. He'd been wrestling with something inside of himself for a long while, just working on the ability to finally come up with some kind of explanation.

Wheeljack turned back to Sunstreaker abruptly, Sideswipe completely forgotten. "Jealous? Of what, a human? You don't even _like_ humans." He looked completely taken aback, the rage in his eyes quickly replaced by disbelief. This clearly hadn't been the answer he'd been expecting. It wasn't as much of a surprise to Allison as it apparently was to Wheeljack, but hearing it come out of Sunstreaker's mouth in this manner made it sting just a tiny bit more. So she wasn't _quite_ over it yet, even though she was maybe just a little bit more empathetic than Wheeljack was capable of being under current circumstances.

"No, it's not that." Sunstreaker looked insulted for a moment—jealousy over a human was just completely below him apparently. Allison's empathy level dipped a little bit again. "The humans are always around… Bumblebee and that little thing—"

Sari made an indignant noise next to Allison, but she decided that now would not be a good time to be brave enough to interject.

"And then you come home with one," Sunstreaker was digging himself into a hole. _What am I, a stray cat from the pound?_ Allison's empathy meter was leveling out dangerously close to critical levels of _not giving a fuck_.

"I don't know why it made me angry, but it did. It just felt so unnatural. We're not supposed to interact with them. We _can't_ interact with them. They don't understand us, but are arrogant enough to think that they do." Where exactly was Sunstreaker getting this information? "It was bad enough having to watch you and her together all the time. But then she had to go and start stealing my brother away from me."

"Whoa, hang on…" For the first time, Sideswipe actually looked offended, but it was nothing compared to the embarrassment Allison felt. She didn't even understand where this was coming from. Even though Sunstreaker had already given her an idea of how he'd felt, hearing him splurge this information _in front of everyone_ only worked to gather everyone's focus on her involvement in it, intentional or not. It was humiliating, how much everything had spiraled out of control, and as her empathy meter for Sunstreaker finally dipped below the disgust line she'd had enough. She didn't want them all looking at her, considering everything she'd been weighing in her mind.

"I think I need some air," She mumbled to Bumblebee, slipping past him before his partially opened mouth could actually emit any request for her to stay. Sari gave her an unusually perceptive look as she moved past her, but the only thing Allison could return in kind was a lopsided frown. She continued to catch their conversation as she walked away, not entirely sure where she intended to go but only knew that she wanted to be alone.

"Are you really that prejudiced?" Wheeljack's voice was filled with dismay, no longer laced with the threat of imminent harm. "Sunstreaker, I've always figured you as someone who had a great deal of pride. Primus, I even admired you for it. But this... this was just insanity. I'm not sure it's something I could ever, ever forgive you for."

Bumblebee just caught the end of this statement as he watched Allison walking away with some measure of concern, but he had sensed a great deal of disturbance in her since he'd found her at the mine. There was something on her mind that she wasn't sharing, and he imagined that hearing this conversation about her happening without any actual regard for her stake in the matter had pushed her to the limits of her patience. The need to be alone seemed sensible, so he respected that desire. He wasn't sure he would have enjoyed hearing fellow Autobots talking about him while he was listening so he found that he couldn't blame her. The conversation was starting to limit his patience as well, but Sari seemed interested in staying and hearing what was going on. Besides, _someone_ had to watch Starscream, as the others appeared to have forgotten the Decepticon was even there.

"We've lost our home, 'Jack. We've lost everything. Do you even remember what we were originally fighting for? We're still fighting for something that's gone and never coming back. Now Prime has us fighting for something that's so beneath us, and so beyond anything we should even care about."

"Where do you get the authority to decide what's _beneath us_?" Wheeljack argued, the edge of anger returning to his voice. "The way I see it, which you seem too absorbed in yourself to even care, or notice, is that we brought this here, on this planet's doorstep, and it's not our place to just burst through the door unannounced and expect the humans to take it, and die for it." The anger was flaring. "What does that say about us if we disregard the lives on this planet when they didn't ask for us to bring our fighting here? We started this, and it's our duty to stop it—it's the Autobot duty to make sure that innocent lives aren't affected by us any more than they need to be."

"You say that as if actively becoming involved with them and interacting with them isn't intentionally putting them in harm's way… you could have did what you needed to do in Sealth and left, but you just had to pull that creature in with you—you're no better than what you're accusing me of. They shouldn't matter. They shouldn't even factor in to what we're doing. We should all just do what we need to do and _leave._"

"If you're suggesting I should have just left her to die, all for the sake of the mission, then you're even more lost than I'd feared." Wheeljack wavered. Bumblebee knew this conversation was going nowhere fast, and he could see that Sideswipe was having a difficult time processing and accepting what his brother was saying. Wheeljack's anger was quickly crumbling into something more disturbed. "What's _beneath_ us is the very idea that we would spread our fighting and misery wherever we set foot without any care for what it destroys. _That's_ what being lost is. Lost is when we lose our… humanity." This coaxed a rather unimpressed snarl from Sunstreaker.

"The very idea that you would use such a word to… to label what we stand for or what we value as our moral compass just proves that we've lost sight of who and what we are. We're not a part of them, and they're not a part of us and can never be… so… seeing everyone interact with them with such _comfort_ just feels so wrong—"

"I don't even think you understand what you're saying," Wheeljack said, the fight in him all but gone. It was probably a good thing that Allison hadn't stuck around to listen to this, because Bumblebee was starting to regret that he had lingered. He felt a bit sick in his internals listening to Sunstreaker just spew out something that had obviously been festering in his processor for some time.

Wheeljack's posture finally relaxed, but he sagged, clearly feeling an emotional unease. "I feel sorry for you, that you're so unwilling to reach out. They may surprise you with how much they understand us, if you would just give them a chance—and maybe we don't belong here… maybe revealing ourselves to the humans was a mistake, but it's been done. If we can find some fulfillment in interacting with the humans we've brought into our fold, then maybe in the end that's something good for us. Maybe it shows us that we aren't so special, or unique, or that our problems don't take precedence over theirs… it reminds us that there's still value in what we're fighting to protect. Maybe that humility is a good thing. It might be a good thing for you." He looked at Sunstreaker, who was out of things to say. He looked bothered, that perhaps he wasn't quite as committed to everything he'd just ranted about; Bumblebee felt a great deal of wisdom from Wheeljack's words

"They aren't as different from us as you'd like to believe. I think you know that. You just haven't accepted that yet."

Sunstreaker wobbled, unable to support his weight any longer as he slumped to the ground. His back scraped against the rubble of the fountain as he went slack, optics turning skyward in reflection. "This place doesn't feel right. It's not our _real_ home."

"That doesn't give you the right to take something away from your family. To... to..." Wheeljack was at a loss for words, searching for the appropriate way to voice his grief. "Your actions betrayed everything about you that makes you who and what you are..." He paused as Sideswipe shifted uncomfortably near them. "Your actions betrayed me, Sunstreaker. And worst of all you betrayed your own brother."

"I know, 'Jack." Sunstreaker muttered, while Sideswipe remained where he stood. There was an uncomfortable distance between them that was unwavering.

"I said stop calling me that," Wheeljack barked, relative calm briefly disturbed as the volume of his voice flared to higher levels. "You have to earn my trust again, and honestly, from where I'm standing, I'm not sure that you can."

"What do you feel like, when you're around her?" Sunstreaker asked suddenly, his gaze still up at the night sky as his voice went unusually quiet. The abrupt shift in topic must have thrown Wheeljack off too, because he didn't immediately respond, studying Sunstreaker as if he'd get further clues as to what his intentions were. Bumblebee got the distinct impression that Sunstreaker was prodding Wheeljack for something, but he just didn't know what it was.

"I'm not really sure that's any of your business. I really don't feel that inclined to confide in you."

"I need to know. How do you feel?"

Wheeljack hesitated before answering. "I'm not really sure that sort of thing can be quantified. It's a spark thing. There's been eons of discussion on the matter, but really I don't think any scientist on Cybertron has ever been able to justifiably explain—"

Sunstreaker snorted, resting the back of his head against the ruined fountain. "I don't want a theoretical lecture. I want to know how _you_ feel."

"I still don't know why you want to know this... Or why I should tell you."

"Please," Sunstreaker pressed. "It's important."

Wheeljack stared at Sunstreaker with a glow of mistrust in his optics. "It's complicated," he said, finally. "It's essentially impossible really to put it into words. We have a bond, that's really all I can say right now. I guess humans call it love, though their definition is somewhat different." Wheeljack's eyes suddenly narrowed, and he growled. "And you tried to take that away from me. It doesn't belong to you. You had _no_ right..." The anger in his eyes however, was no longer mirrored in his voice, which was heavy with grief.

"Then you know how I feel," Sunstreaker said, looking up at his brother. Sideswipe was standing apart, pretending to be looking elsewhere. Bumblebee hadn't often seen Sideswipe uncomfortable, so it was a rare sight to see the Autobot clearly desiring to be anywhere but where he was at that moment. "We have to protect each other. I have to protect him. He's all I have."

After a few moments of silence, save for the soft venting of air as Sunstreaker got a grip on himself, he looked back at Wheeljack. A new thought was apparent in his optics as if he'd just realized something.

"I'm... sorry."

"It's too late for apologies, Sunstreaker. I pity you. I really do. I hope one day you will see that this place, our home, is really not as bad as you seem to want to think. Whether you want to believe it or not, there are those here who care about you. I would even be willing to bet my own spark…" Wheeljack vented air deeply, as if he didn't quite want to speak the words he was about to commit to. "…I would even bet, that despite everything you've done, Allison cares about you. _That's_ what makes the humans good enough to protect, and _that's_ what makes them no less our equals." It was expected that Sunstreaker would have some callous, spiteful thing to say to this, to the very notion that it would even be relevant that a human would care about him. Oddly enough, he said nothing, and simply stared up at Wheeljack with a pale, bleary gaze of uncertainty.

"What have I done?" Sunstreaker asked, quietly.

"Don't think about what you _have_ done," Wheeljack replied, gravely. "Think instead of what you _can _do."

"I have a lot of apologizing to do, don't I?" Sunstreaker sighed.

Wheeljack merely replied with a short, blunt answer. "Yep."

"You're not making this easy, you know."

"Nope."

Even though Bumblebee had known this all to be true, hearing it again, in so much more detail coming straight from Sunstreaker's mouth as he told Wheeljack—it was a hard thing to have to witness. Impulsively, he looked around for Allison to see if she had stuck around to hear everything that had been said. He knew she'd walked away, but suddenly not seeing her was making him fidget as Wheeljack and Sunstreaker continued their silent stare-down. Sari must have sensed his anxiety and tapped him on the arm, gesturing to their right when he looked down at her. There was a small break in two of the half-collapsed buildings that looked like some sort of path or alley, and he figured that she must have disappeared down there.

Bumblebee threw an urgent glance at Starscream, and he was relieved to see that the Decepticon had not moved, but his optics were looking down the same small alleyway. His gaze had a look of treacherous hunger, as if debating in his mind whether or not it was safe to slip away and follow Allison into her seclusion. Bumblebee could almost see those particular cogs turning behind the Decepticon's leering gaze and it made his wings stand on-end in anger as a ripple of disgust passed over his spinal strut. Revolted, Bumblebee jumped up, straightening his back as he tried to look big, stepping into the Decepticon's line of sight to break his gaze. Starscream simply stared back, all traces of subservience suddenly gone as he smiled wickedly.

"One can learn a lot about the Autobots from just one conversation. So much on the surface, but so much more deep inside."

"What, Decepticons don't have emotion?" Bumblebee asked with a snort.

"We have ambition," Starscream replied.

"You also have arrogance, hatred and a general loathing for anything good in life."

"That's a somewhat short-sighted and misinformed perspective," Starscream replied, sourly. "But to each his own."

"Just stay here, and don't even think of doing something I'll make you regret." Bumblebee snapped, turning to look at what had Starscream so interested. He couldn't see Allison, but the alleyway must have opened up into a cleared space at the end.

"I must admit," Starscream continued. "You're a feisty one, considering how small you are." His head tilted up, looking down on Bumblebee like someone snubbing a lesser being.

"I'm compact," Bumblebee said shortly. "It makes me punch harder."

"I'll take your word for it." He coughed loudly, attempting to get Wheeljack and Sunstreaker's attention. "Forgive me for intruding on this little family squabble, but I feel compelled to inform you that your little human pet wandered off somewhere while you two were bickering. It might be in your best interest to go retrieve her."

Wheeljack stared at Starscream for a moment, then at Bumblebee who nodded to confirm that what the Decepticon had said was indeed true. The yellow Autobot pointed in the direction of the alleyway, and Wheeljack used this opportunity to abruptly excuse himself from the drama, taking care to leave the Decepticon with a final glare of warning.


	28. A Barrel of Worms

**AN: I didn't realize how long this chapter had gotten until loading it here so have a sandwich or a coffee ready. I'll try not to be making them so long going forward, but I didn't really want to cut this one in half anywhere. Also, another explanation about the sudden change in Allison's tone. I realize it's probably jarring, but after spending a great deal of time away from this tale and coming back to it with a fresh perspective I realized I needed to change some things up. Call it, life perspectives. It's still not perfect, but the intention here is to start (hopefully) setting her up to be a stronger character for the climax and for future tales should I get that far. I have some ideas for where I want to take things, so I'm starting to lay some groundwork here.**

**Thanks for reading, and thanks to those of you who stuck around this long after a long absence!**

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><p>Once his immediate frustrations had been somewhat dealt with, Wheeljack finally stopped his overworked, scattered processor long enough to remember that Allison had been present and unusually aloof since first coming into contact with her at the Decepticon mine. Satisfied that Sunstreaker was more than aware of how unimpressed he was with his little indiscretion, Wheeljack knew that it was time to lay some other pressing matters to rest as well, and that was determining how Allison was faring.<p>

Bumblebee gestured to where it was assumed Allison had walked off to, so Wheeljack found himself squeezing between two falling buildings that were long in disrepair. There was just barely enough room for him to pass through, the walkway obviously not meant to accommodate a being of his size, but he managed with little rearranging of his gait.

His optics searched the open space of grass on the other side, but Allison wasn't immediately found. A small tendril of guilt slithered through him, realizing that he'd more or less lost it right in front of her, and she'd almost become an afterthought. Ignoring her had never been his intention, but he'd been so angry and focused on working out that anger that his sensory array had tunneled. Walking away had been logical; he'd walked away from his fair share of arguments between the Autobots whether or not he'd been involved, because being forced outside of an argument that you wanted to stop was frustrating to endure. The only thing that had mattered was making sure Sunstreaker knew that he'd done something unforgivable, regardless of Allison inadvertently being a part of it.

_CRACK_

There was a sound up ahead and to Wheeljack's left, like the impact of something small against a hollow surface. He followed the sound and found himself around the other side of the smaller, crumpled building on the left. There were a number of scattered, rotting barrels littering the space that lined the edge of the trees, and Allison was there with her back to him.

They hadn't had a chance to really speak since the… incident, and there had been such a rush to get out of the Decepticon line of fire that he'd probably appeared very cold with her earlier. Then in the flurry of activity with Breakdown, the altercation with Sunstreaker, and Starscream—

_Primus… Starscream…_

He hadn't even had the opportunity to really address that with her yet, why Starscream was here. At least he hadn't had the chance to properly explain what had been going on in his processor once he'd learned of what Sunstreaker had done. Wheeljack imagined she had many questions. He also imagined that having many questions, while being ignored had probably not been palatable. She'd been around Knock Out, of all 'Cons to be stuck with, and he could only really imagine what she'd gone through; nothing pleasant, judging from his own experience. He'd had his own fair share of run-ins with Knock Out, but he'd always managed to come away unharmed. It was hard to tell with Allison.

Allison was showing a surprising amount of strength given the circumstances, and Wheeljack hadn't really seen her crack since Bumblebee had shown up with her in tow at the Decepticon mine. She'd been relieved to see him, but she'd barely spoken. She didn't fall apart. In fact, she appeared to be as blank of a canvas as he'd ever seen her. He knew her well enough to know that she had something on her mind, and she was probably not taking his inability to listen to her lightly. In other words, he was probably in the dog house.

_CRACK_

Wheeljack saw Allison lob what looked like a small stone at one of the sagging, whitened out walls. The hollow sound had been the impact of the smaller projectile against the aging wood of the building, now overrun with climbing vines and vegetation as the surrounding forest started to take the area back. She didn't react to his approach, but knelt down to the ground to scoop up what looked like one of many small rocks that surrounded her. Wheeljack didn't entirely understand the purpose of such an activity. He used his own unusual means of escape to think out a difficult equation, or ponder through getting a specific engineering model right, but throwing things was never really on the activity menu—unless he was angry.

A mixture of emotions passed through the Autobot all at once: relief, guilt, but most of all a deeply instinctive feeling of compassion for her that compelled him to leave her at peace. He couldn't bring himself to walk away, not wanting to let her out of his sight after everything that had happened. At the same time he hesitated, not entirely sure what he was walking into. The unevenness of her motions coupled with the stiffness in her shoulders when she threw that next stone told him that she was experiencing something profound, something that he couldn't even imagine as he watched her in silence. It didn't seem right to disturb her, or particularly smart, because he had the barest suspicion that it involved him.

For the moment she was safe, and that was all that mattered. Wheeljack told himself that this whole time, he'd only had her best interest in mind, but was he lying to himself? What had been his motivations really? Surely he cared deeply about her safety—it was as deeply ingrained into him now as much as the need to tinker and create, and a part of the very fabric that made up who he was. His goal had been to get to her, to protect her, and to keep her out of harm's way.

But he'd acted impulsively, as was his way, to sometimes not quite think a plan entirely through before jumping head-first into the unknown. He'd always thrived on that chaotic unknowing, which was why a lot of his experiments often worked _too well_; often with explosive results, because he didn't always take the time to work through other possibilities: safety measures, probable outcomes, practicality against what was more complex but maybe more exciting, but more importantly disregard for _restraint_. He just did what felt right.

Was bringing Starscream really the right call? Was breaking protocol, disobeying a direct order and breaking a prisoner out of Autobot custody a wise decision, or had he acted under a selfish need to simply get what he wanted—_needed_—turning a blind eye to his discomfort with even the thought of the Decepticon so much as thinking about Allison. Her attempts to tell him that she was fine hadn't put him at ease then. He outright knew that her comfort levels with a Decepticon who had tried to kill her that was also behind bars was not the same as a Decepticon free and out in the open and perfectly capable of playing any number of games he wished with her. He hadn't been thinking about how she'd feel about it, he'd only thought about himself. He hadn't been thinking about _her_ at all.

Primus, was he a selfish Autobot? Was he arrogant enough to think that only his feelings had mattered? Surely rescuing Allison had served her well, because she was alive, but his means had been questionable. He'd gotten lucky, because what if Bumblebee and Sideswipe hadn't have been there? What if he'd been forced to venture further into the Decepticon lair on his own, with nothing but a scheming, conniving lunatic at his back (and in the interest of being honest, how much of a fool was he for even entertaining the notion for a blip of a cycle that Starscream would not have stabbed him in the back the first chance he got)? He'd willingly put himself at risk, knowing the stakes, knowing the Decepticons wanted him and were aware he was stupid enough to do exactly what they wanted without thinking things through. They would have gotten him, let Starscream go and killed Allison and Sunstreaker, and he would have put the entire Autobot team at risk. But instead, Wheeljack had acted on pure, dumb luck.

Separate, but wholly connected to that, was his agenda with Sunstreaker. That Autobot had needed to know how Wheeljack felt, and he hadn't cared who'd listened. Allison had been yelling at him to stop, having been through enough, knowing that Sunstreaker had suffered more than enough for what he'd done, but he hadn't cared. He'd wanted Sunstreaker to pay and that was it. He'd ignored everything else, only thinking about what he'd wanted because in that moment of pure primal urgency nothing else mattered.

Primus, he _was_ selfish.

"I'm not deaf, I know you're there," Allison finally said, her back still turned while Wheeljack was thinking things through as a miserable pang of guilt settled itself at the base of his spark. Allison's voice was soft and strangely even, but her inability to turn and look at him was very telling. "Unlike you it would seem."

Wheeljack definitely was in trouble then.

"I guess you caught me then," Wheeljack offered, trying to sound encouraging as he rubbed his head absently with a murky froth of unpleasant thoughts churning in his processor. Finally, Allison turned, just barely edging her body to look at him sideways. She might have been hiding something from him, or thinking she was hiding it, but he already knew that the side of her face was bruised. It had likely been from Knock Out taking her car out, or… from something else, but he knew it had been better to leave her physical condition alone for a time that was more appropriate—he admitted to himself that he really hadn't thought about her physical condition aside from the base observation that she was alive. It had completely escaped him, and his throat tubing made a light squelching sound of unease as he tightened his jaw at this realization.

It was either her desire to not distress him further that Allison didn't completely face him, or she just couldn't stomach looking at him for the time being, which wasn't exactly the better possibility. "Look, I know you're upset with me and I'm sorry I wasn't listening. You've been through a lot... and I didn't want to get you caught up in my own anger problems..."

"Well, thank you for that concern," Allison said, finally turning to face him. Her face wasn't as banged up as he'd first expected, but she didn't seem to be concerned with that anyway. Mottled, purple bruising was just starting to form along the ridge of her cheek bone and her lip was split on the bottom, leaving an unusual mark on her frown. Her eyes were very focused on him, and it was an expression he wasn't used to seeing on her face. It wasn't indifference, but it straddled a line between resignation and resolution. "I have a voice. It's time you started listening for it."

"Maybe I got a little overzealous," Wheeljack admitted, shifting on his feet. "I was so angry. I still am, I guess." He looked back in the direction he'd come from where the other Autobots were still congregated.

The conversation he'd had with Sunstreaker, hearing how the Autobot felt, hadn't helped to make sense of what had been done. If anything, it actually made him feel worse, knowing that the younger Autobot was so… lost was really the only word to describe it, and Wheeljack didn't even think that was powerful enough. He felt immeasurably sad; for Sunstreaker, for Sideswipe, for himself, but most of all, for Allison who'd had to bear the weight of another's insecurities and deal with his own subsequent irresponsible self-importance. He'd thought that they were stronger than that, but apparently he'd been wrong. He'd even surprised himself with half of what he'd said to counter Sunstreaker's unusual levels of prejudice.

"I'm just glad to see you're safe, Allison" Wheeljack admitted, wrestling with a need to go near her and the uncertainty as to whether or not his proximity was welcome. Instead he compromised and knelt down carefully where he stood. It was a start, getting closer to her level but also keeping a safe distance should that new rock in her hand find itself on course for his face. He searched for something to say. "When I heard about what Sunstreaker had done I—"

"Please," Allison said, raising a hand to cut him off, a forced smile only half managing to form on her face before slipping into a grimace. He wasn't sure if it was from pain, or from something even deeper. "It happened, and nothing can change that. But it's over for now." Wheeljack knew that there was more on the subject to address at a later date.

"I'm sorry I let this happen. I'm sorry you had to see whatever that was back there. I didn't mean to..." Wheeljack struggled to find the right wording, lowering his head with embarrassment. In the heat of the moment he'd completely forgotten that she had been listening to him and Sunstreaker work out aggressively what had happened. "I've never been the most practically _responsible_ Autobot. If you ever needed evidence, I guess this is as damning as it's going to get." Wheeljack shrugged halfheartedly, but the action was measurably more intense from Allison's perspective. "The short of the long is; I need to do a better job listening to you. I'm sorry it's taken me this long."

"No, don't be sorry," Allison said, the tension in her face evening out to something more relaxed as she eased up in his presence, a natural reaction to his admissions. "This wasn't your fault. I had to walk away though. I didn't need to hear anymore. There's only so much of a negative experience you can relive at once."

"I feel like it is," Wheeljack replied. "I'm supposed to be protecting you. I was upset with you this morning, and at first I'd thought you left intentionally because you were mad at me." He said truthfully, optics dimming.

Allison smiled. The reaction to his words took him by surprise, and his initial thought process was maybe she was so mad that her brain wasn't operating properly, causing the wrong expression to play across her face. But as she continued to shake her head, he realized that it wasn't a mistake. Allison seemed to be working something out in her head, expression thoughtful. She pursed her lips after a moment of quiet, finally turning back to meet his optics with resilience in her stare.

"Wheeljack, I'm not mad at you. I was never mad at you."

Finally she walked over to him, bridging the uncertain distance between them that had been lingering since he'd found her. There was still a tension that needed to be diffused, and problems that needed addressing, that much was obvious, but Wheeljack was having a hard time instigating that conversation. As she walked closer she bent down and picked up a stick, letting it drag along the dusty, packed ground. She was making deliberate, consciously placed outlines in the dirt, even though Wheeljack couldn't discern any visible pattern to them.

"I understood why you were upset. This whole thing—" She stabbed at the ground with the stick. "—Just sort of happened. He ambushed me, and then _took_ me." She faltered, obviously intentionally leaving out details for his sake. He had no misconceptions that Sunstreaker probably hadn't been delicate with her, and she probably thought she was doing him a favor by not telling him. Truthfully, he wasn't sure that he wanted to know, and it was probably safer for Sunstreaker if he didn't. "But then I think some part of him, even if it's very, very tiny, realized that what he did was wrong. He came back for me. Eventually, but he did come back."

"And then you got captured," Wheeljack reminded her, but instantly regretted simply blurting out the first thing that came to mind. "I don't know what I would do if anything happened to you that I could have prevented," he back-peddled, trying to focus the conversation away from the immediate topic of capture. Allison however looked like she'd left the conversation as her eyes went hazy. She said nothing in response to this, but her shoulders tightened as she let the stick fall back to the ground, which said enough.

"That's just it though. You can't prevent everything." Allison's response was quiet, but it was the loudest words Wheeljack thought he'd ever heard her speak. She didn't elaborate, but he sensed a train of thought in the tracks of her brain, and even a lowly maintenance drone could have put the pieces together to work out what she was actually saying in the spaces between her words. It was clear she feared for her safety, and he didn't like the veiled meaning beneath her words, namely, the subject of her mortality.

After a few moments he spoke quietly, vocal panels failing to react.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there for you…" Wheeljack knew something was wrong, he was starting to see the picture beneath the puzzle, but her unwillingness to share with him what was really going on was not putting him at ease. Perhaps he was being paranoid. He still didn't completely know what she'd experienced, or what she'd seen, or felt. She could have been simply rattled, shaking off lingering fear and adrenaline. He wasn't Ratchet, and while he could perform basic scans to make sure she wasn't going to suffer from any immediate concerns, he could do nothing for whatever emotional trauma she'd endured.

"Wheeljack, you can't be there all the time." Allison's sentence had a finality to it. It was clear she was trying to inject into his head what he himself knew was simply fact. Her eyes were sad, indicative that it didn't make her happy to admit it, but she didn't try to hide it. "What you need to concentrate on is that you're here now." She didn't elaborate on this, but her voice had gone quiet as if waiting for him to respond.

"I know," Wheeljack offered quietly, watching Allison's pale eyes shift with uncertainty. "I just wish I could have been there sooner. I just can't let anything happen to ya."

Allison broke eye contact first, nodding sullenly as her mouth pulled sideways in a barely enthusiastic smile. She was looking past him, back from where she'd come from; back where the others were waiting, including Starscream. That brought a pressing matter to the foreground.

"Ah—yeah. About Starscream… I need to explain," Wheeljack blurted quickly with some guilt, making Allison's gaze snap back onto him. "You must think I'm crazy, trusting that 'Con and bringing him here, but I thought—"

"That doesn't matter." Allison said loudly in an effort to interrupt him, which worked. Her voice held more command now, something Wheeljack hadn't heard in a long time. It was clear she was trying to gain control of the discussion in an attempt to wrangle it onto the right track. "I get it. You probably didn't know what to do, so you acted instinctively."

"Are you—" Wheeljack didn't get very far before Allison cut him off sharply.

"We don't need to talk about it." Admittedly Allison's response left Wheeljack a little taken aback, which was something that didn't happen often. He didn't know what to say in response to her bluntness. He'd expected more of an argument over Starscream, but instead she was brushing it off as if it hardly mattered. It mattered to him, so he was having a hard time deciding if he should be offended.

But Wheeljack knew he had his own biases against the Decepticon, and he didn't need to start pressing those on Allison as well. He was sure she wasn't going to make friends with Starscream anytime soon, but he'd let her decide how she wanted to feel without telling her how _he_ thought she should feel. At the very least, he needed to give her time.

Allison's eyes finally softened, after what had seemed like an entire conversation of cold glances and tension, but something had finally eased up inside her. She brought a hand to the side of her face and exhaled deeply, the rosy flush on her skin beginning to pale against the cool air of the evening.

"I hit my head when the car went over," Allison said quietly, offering an explanation that was likely a reaction to his concerned expression. It was superficial, and would heal in time, but it probably had hurt. Wheeljack however was impressed by her ability to shrug it off. "Not really something I intend to repeat."

"Yeah," Wheeljack responded, knowing that particular expression sounded dumb under these circumstances but he didn't know what else to say. He was still feeling a disruption in his spark that was making it somewhat hard to think. Allison wasn't telling him something, she was being evasive and changing the subject, but he couldn't quite place what was wrong or what the best way was to fix it.

That was part of the problem though. Allison wasn't a machine, or an experiment that could just be _fixed_. She was a human being, with thoughts and feelings that were vastly more complex than he was giving them credit for, and the light years between them had never been more apparent until that very moment. There was something getting lost in translation that Wheeljack just knew he should be seeing but he wasn't. He felt very much like a sparkling with no comprehension of what he was supposed to do and suddenly Allison felt more alien to him than she ever had. Wheeljack found that very upsetting; most of all, that he couldn't _fix_ it.

"When can we leave?" Allison finally approached one of the more pressing topics at hand, but it was more obvious now than before that she was hastily trying to change the subject with a shrug. "Because I'd really like to not be here anymore."

"I don't want to be this close to a Decepticon outpost any more than you do, but I'm afraid Sunstreaker is not fit for travel right now. I don't think Sideswipe will last much longer either. Frankly, I'm inclined to leave them both here to rust..." Wheeljack said dourly, looking over his shoulder in exasperation as he followed her queue to discuss something else. He wasn't happy, but he wasn't going to harass Allison either.

Allison apparently was in no mood to be harassed anyway, because he felt a light slap on his arm that could have only come from her. She'd finally closed the distance between them completely and had her eyes narrowed to unimpressed slits.

"What?" Wheeljack asked, defensively. "If Sideswipe is dumb enough to attempt a spark transfer in the middle of a Decepticon base, then I say let him stay."

Allison looked at Wheeljack disapprovingly. "Dumb enough? Sideswipe may very well have saved Sunstreaker's life."

Wheeljack nodded, as if this somehow emboldened his perspective. "I know. The only reason why Sunstreaker is walking is because Sideswipe shared some of his spark energy with him, putting his own life in great peril. It was completely reckless and irresponsible."

"It's also an incredibly brave and selfless thing to do. You do reckless things all the time, and the fact that I know this having only met you for a small fraction of the time you've been around is very telling of _how often_ you do it," Allison grumbled, but her words were laced with the needed mirth that had been sorely lacking the last several minutes. It had felt like hours of them staring one another down without knowing what to really say to each other. Wheeljack was just happy to see light return to her eyes. "Like running off and taking on Soundwave all by yourself for starters."

"That... was a completely different situation." Wheeljack tried, realizing he didn't really have a leg to stand on. "Fine, I see your point, but it was still stupid, and right now those two could use a swift kick into reality after all the trouble they've caused." Allison did not look quite as convinced, and Wheeljack couldn't help but wonder why she wasn't completely furious with either of the twins after what she'd been through.

"Please don't take your anger out on Sideswipe, Wheeljack," Allison said with a partial smile. "He was just trying to save his brother. I get the impression he was as confused as everyone else when he found out what Sunstreaker had done. And I imagine you probably scared the hell out of him when you found out."

"There might have been a little shock, yes," Wheeljack admitted, remembering a distinct threat to shove a hand grenade down another Autobot's throat and detonate it. "I'm pretty sure Sunstreaker got the point too," he added, starting to come to terms with the potency of his anger. Things had changed inside him ever since Allison had come into his life. Sure, he'd gotten angry on plenty occasions before when things didn't go quite right, or when he didn't agree with Autobot higher command (which happened often). But his anger had never felt so raw before. The bond was changing him, for better, and for worse, and it was something he'd need to get a handle on.

Perhaps, that was what Allison was seeing and what she was trying to stop. She'd seen what had happened between him and Sunstreaker, and by proxy Sideswipe, first-hand and it had scared her. Now that he had time to calmly contemplate himself, it scared him too. He'd looked into Sunstreaker's optics in an angry, detached haze and hadn't even really seen what was there beneath and what the object of his rage was projecting. Reflecting with a clear mind, Wheeljack recognized that Sunstreaker had always been a cacophony of battling emotions, but never had he seen such humiliated guilt before. Sunstreaker wouldn't yet admit it, but he very well may have learned from this mistake, and Wheeljack knew that ultimately that was important.

"I know you're angry at Sunstreaker. And you have every right to be, but he's lonely, Wheeljack. He feels like he only has himself and his brother out here, and when I look at him all I see is a broken spirit."

Allison arguably recognized what Wheeljack had been pondering—Sunstreaker could be redeemed—and her compulsion to request that he see past betrayal-ridden judgments was also changing him, challenging him even. After already convincing him to spare Starscream's life once, getting him to be at peace with Sunstreaker and his slightly less guilty brother further compounded the fact that Allison was far more complicated than he ever imagined; she wasn't just a mathematical equation that he could ponder over and solve. That was something he could understand. This was something entirely new, and he was starting to realize that he had no place to expect her to feel any certain way about anything.

The Decepticon certainly hadn't deserved the mercy she'd shown him, not with the endless list of his crimes. While the twins didn't share the same record of achievements, it was still hard to believe that she would be so quick to try and see reason. This level of compassion was something he would have never expected, but he found that it made him respect her… maybe even garner a little bit of fascination. There was another word it could have been but Wheeljack had a difficult time equating such a human word to something he was feeling.

Cybertronians did not often use the word _love_, even though they felt the same emotions outside of the physical interpretations of that word. What he felt now, if he thought like a human and removed himself from the equation—really looked at it from a base level of inquiry and observation separate from his participation in it—he could describe it as love.

For a moment, he contemplated saying it, but fearing how Allison would react he remained silent. He knew she wouldn't misinterpret him, in that his love was different, but he still didn't know how she would receive such an admission. Especially now, when they were still somewhat at odds and she looked so hurt and lost. He vaguely wondered if that was what he saw in her eyes. He remembered a moment when he'd been about to kill Starscream, and that look had been there while she begged him to stop.

It was probably best to leave it all alone for now, until he could better understand how _she_ was feeling before he started splurging sentiments that might appear unusual coming from him. Maybe she just needed time to recover. Maybe she had hit her head harder than she had thought and simply needed the opportunity to let it pass and come to terms with what was going on. It was also a possibility that he was lying to himself for the sake of comfort, and what he'd always feared in the back of his processor was the real reason he wasn't saying anything.

But he had to know something.

"Allison," he said quietly, but he kept his voice firm with resolve. His vocal indicators remained dim when he spoke, willed to their own silence by near-whispering levels of his voice and the disturbing fluctuations in his spark. There was nothing cheerful about what he was feeling now, and ever an impression of his mood, they responded in kind. "I think it's best if I just come out and ask you something that I've been sensing from you, and it's gonna kill me if I don't ask now."

The line of Allison's mouth thinned as she watched him, seeming to stall in breath as if waiting for some kind of bad news. Or perhaps she knew what he was about to say because he was right, and it was indeed on her mind. She nodded. "Sure."

"I know that there are times when you feel like you don't belong; that you don't have an identity, or any say in what happens with your life," Wheeljack started, choosing his words carefully. He didn't want to be saying them, but as he'd slowly started to put the pieces together in his head over the last several minutes the grim conclusion was that they needed to be said. Allison's reaction was one of quiet surprise, her eyes opening just a touch wider for a moment as her lips parted as if to speak. She didn't get a chance to. "I know it's not all the time, but there are moments when you feel the difference between our species can cause some sense of...exclusion. And I don't blame you for feeling that way. While I never went through anything quite to the same extent, I've experienced that state of being on the outside looking in. I want you to know that asking you to come with me was never meant to remove you from your own existence and trap you. But, I've been careless and that's probably what's been happening."

"Your war, Wheeljack," Allison started quietly, her voice a near-whisper of something regretful. That made his spark feel heavy with all sorts of frightful conclusions. Strange enough, Allison didn't elaborate on what she meant by such a statement, but she didn't need to. Especially with her words that followed. "And… Sari. A _child_ in a world she doesn't completely understand. She needs some control over what happens to her, especially now in this stage in her life. She needs to not just be an extension of Bumblebee, but to have her own voice and an identity. _I_ need an identity…"

"You're right." Wheeljack held his head low, rubbing at the bridge of his helmet against his brow in a worrying fashion, uncertain of what to say. "You need your space, the choice to find your own way. I mean, _Primus_ sometimes I can't stand being around the others and just need to feel disconnected from it all, but it doesn't mean I don't care. It was wrong of me smother you and to involve you in all this fighting. You're—not a soldier, never were and never will be and to think that—" He didn't really understand what he was trying to say.

"That isn't what I meant," Allison's voice was higher, more pronounced in an effort to cut into what was turning into a ramble on his part, and Wheeljack heard something very specific changing in her tone that told him she was experiencing an emotional response on a poignant level. "I came with you willingly, because I was _overcome_ with what you are and the power you possessed… I just wanted something for myself to change and I guess I was… kind of enamored with you, still am I guess, but every time something like this happens it's just obvious that it—"

"—But I needed you, and it was wrong of me to expect you to throw everything away." Wheeljack stopped abruptly, realizing that something was very wrong, and this went far deeper than a temporary bout of regret on Allison's part as she suddenly covered her face with both of her hands. She was shaking her head, working up some resolve inside herself to speak, to possibly come clean with something that had been festering for some time. Her breath hitched, a muffled warble from beneath the shelter of her hands that told him that she was crying, and now it was his turn to feel lost. _Primus, what am I supposed to do now? How did humans deal with this kind of thing?_

"Wheeljack." Allison stopped, showing her face with a shaken look of urgency as her eyes were nearly overcome with the reflection of the moonlight against the moisture within. She was shifting with sudden agitation, looking resigned to follow through with something within herself. "I need to tell you something—"

"Wheeljack!" The Autobot turned angrily at the intrusion of his name being called, looking for the source of the interruption as Bumblebee came clamoring into the clearing in a stumbling run. He had half a mind to bark an offended response right back at Bumblebee, feeling downright territorial and ready to make it known that he was displeased, but when he saw the urgent fear in the scout's optics he knew he couldn't. Bumblebee was agitated, wings twitching as his focus immediately locked on Wheeljack before he spoke.

"You need to get over here, now! Sunstreaker collapsed and he's not responding—" Bumblebee's voice was high; he was panicking, and Wheeljack knew that as the only Autobot with even a fraction of field repair training that meant whatever Allison needed to say would have to wait. This made Wheeljack frustrated and uncomfortable. He hated unresolved equations.

Allison was looking at him sharply, with her face rearranged to intentionally hide her emotion and appear stoic in the interest of urgency. She knew what was required of him and the worry that suddenly passed over her eyes told him that she _could_ wait, because she cared. She nodded heavily to him and pointed roughly in the vague direction of where Sunstreaker possibly was. It was almost a command, an order for him to forget about what was on her mind for the sake of another Autobot. While Wheeljack didn't want to, begrudgingly he knew that he needed to. He was not going to let this go, however, but he found a way to approve of her empathy under the circumstances.

Wheeljack gave Bumblebee a rough glare, unavoidable, but quickly stood and let the scout lead him back to where the other Autobots had taken rest. He could see the commotion even before stepping out into the deserted plaza. Sunstreaker was on the ground, having collapsed against the crumbled fountain with optics that were shuttered and dark; he was experiencing a critical shutdown. Wheeljack's only surprised thought was that it had taken _this _long for it to happen, but Sunstreaker had always been remarkably resilient. The only movements of his body came from Sideswipe's jerking attempts to rouse him out of whatever stasis he had fallen under. Starscream watched them from a safe distance behind, his expression unusually appraising as his focus shifted between each twin sequentially.

Sideswipe had to be forced away and held reassuringly at bay by Bumblebee as Wheeljack knelt down quickly over Sunstreaker's prone form, immediately setting to work on his own meager abilities to scan Autobot vitals. He was the only one amongst them with even a base knowledge of emergency Cybertronian care, having helped Ratchet in his medbay on multiple occasions throughout the war. It was immediately apparent however that whatever was wrong with Sunstreaker wasn't in the same league as performing diagnostic scans and handing Ratchet equipment, occasionally holding a wire or a hand for comfort. That he could do, even if it wasn't entirely as precise as their medic was capable of doing. Wheeljack could build machines and put things together, but Cybertronian physiology wasn't exactly the same as welding a bunch of metal scraps in place.

In their current predicament however, Ratchet was miles away, and Wheeljack was the only one of them who had any experience at all. He was the only one with the technical know-how and memory to even attempt to stabilize Sunstreaker, and he would have to improvise. This was a rare situation where Wheeljack didn't like it, because a life other than his was in the balance.

Sunstreaker's vitals were all dangerously low, and Wheeljack got a strong suspicion that the Autobot's spark was finally failing. With that realization he had to shut down every frivolous thought pathway in his processor and focus. He had to move fast, or else he was going to be looking at a graying Autobot corpse in maybe a matter of minutes, if they were lucky.

"I don't get it!" Sideswipe said in a pained voice. "We shared our spark energy, he should be ok!"

"Sunstreaker's been through a lot," Wheeljack said with a growl, distracted as he worked to reveal Sunstreaker's spark chamber to root out the source of the problem: severed fuel line perhaps, crippled housing, burned out spark-alignment, or completely shattered plating. Immediately he saw several fractures around the spark housing that were going to make additional repairs difficult. Wheeljack set to work welding those back in place first with a small soldering iron extracted from his own physically integrated toolkit on his left upper-arm.

"The physical stress on his spark and the shape his housing is in hasn't done him any good either." Once the quick soldering job was complete, Wheeljack could clearly see several couplings inside Sunstreaker's spark chamber had come loose, some of them completely burned away.

"Punching him in the face didn't exactly help," Sideswipe grunted, words tinged with bitter aggression.

"Quiet. I'm trying to work," Wheeljack said, shortly.

"Shouldn't... shouldn't Ratchet be doing this? How do I know you're not trying to kill him?" Sideswipe asked, his wavering voice loud and paranoid. Wheeljack only half-turned to him with narrowed optics.

"That's just insulting. I've spent enough time in the medbay helping Ratchet put you two glitches back together. Now If you don't shut up and let me do this then he _will_ die," Wheeljack growled, fingers working fast as he tried to weld some of the couplings back in place. It was delicate work as some of the wiring was thin and vein-like, almost forming a webbing underneath the plating of his spark chamber. Soundwave's hook must have ripped clean through them. It was a wonder Sunstreaker had lived this long, especially after being tortured.

Sunstreaker's back suddenly arched, and he let out a pained cry, causing Wheeljack to draw back with a start, unsure of what had happened. Sideswipe nearly leapt onto him, just barely held back by Bumblebee before doing more damage than he'd likely intended.

"What's happening? I thought you were trying to make him better!"

"I am!" Wheeljack yelled back. He tried to grip Sunstreaker and keep him pinned down, but the yellow Autobot was convulsing. "I don't get it," he snarled in frustration. "Something's wrong. I've reconnected some of his central neuron connectors, but something's blocking their signal." He exhaled sharply. "I need Ratchet..." The last statement came out as a near-whisper, as Wheeljack looked to the side to see that Allison and Sari were watching them. Sari looked completely lost and afraid as she hovered near Allison, whose face was struggling with her own grimace of defeat. Her eyes darted between him and the Autobot on the ground, at least until something caught her attention behind him.

The presence of a large shadow looming over them was the first cue that someone else had joined their frantic group. Wheeljack tried to keep his eyes on Sunstreaker on the ground, trying to stay focused while he held him down in an effort to keep him from doing more damage to his spark chamber. With optics alone he searched desperately within Sunstreaker's open chamber to find the source of whatever was causing the complication. If he didn't it would likely kill him.

"Something wrong with that Autobot, Wheeljack?" Starscream's voice slithered, all coy and confidence, and it made his energon boil with rage.

"_Back off_, Starscream," Bumblebee growled from his position on the sideline. He stepped around Sideswipe, giving up on trying to hold the larger Autobot back, and made a daring attempt to stand between Starscream and the injured Autobot on the ground. Starscream easily evaded him with a slight turn, grinning icily and appearing far too _informed_ of what was going on.

"Oh well," Starscream said with false disinterest, turning to slip past Bumblebee once more, apparently satisfied with the quick look he got at what Wheeljack was trying to do. "I guess if you don't want my help, I'll just go over here and sit down then."

Wheeljack growled, systems revving with heated anger as he tilted his head over his shoulder. "If you know something, Starscream, spit it out, now, or so help me..."

"Oh it's nothing _especially_ exciting," Starscream said indifferently, and even though Wheeljack couldn't entirely see him, he knew the Decepticon was shrugging. "I'm not even sure if it'll help."

"Spill it." Wheeljack could hear the whir of Bumblebee's ion cannon as he barked the order at the Decepticon, presumably pointing it as Starscream's face.

"Oh I was just going to mention how Knock Out has this little thing he likes to do when he gets his hands on prisoners. Sometimes, when he doesn't plan on killing them right away, he likes to place little toys into their chests. If he did indeed place one inside your friend, and let's be honest, he most likely did, it will be very small. You might need to look hard to find it, but it's there."

At the behest of this information from the Decepticon, Wheeljack turned back down to Sunstreaker's chest, frantically looking for anything that didn't belong. With all the broken couplings and crumpled plating, it was hard to really discern something completely out-of-place; it was all a mess. Sunstreaker was slipping rapidly, spark light weakening to a dull flash as his lights began to fade. He was losing him. He wasn't going to lose him...

"I don't know what I'm looking for!"

"It's _possible_ that I might know where to look…"

Sideswipe shot forward like an arrow, nearly running the Decepticon over with the flash of his own anger as he came face-to-face with Starscream.

"I'm not letting you touch my brother." The Autobot snarled, causing Starscream to draw back with an indignant huff.

"Well then, I hope you had a chance to say goodbye to him. You're not going to have much longer..." Starscream said haughtily, turning away from Sideswipe as if their conversation was over. If Bumblebee hadn't been there to stop Sideswipe's lunge at the Decepticon's throat, there would have most certainly been a physical fight, which would have helped nobody. Wheeljack scanned Sunstreaker over time and again, and he wasn't finding anything. There might not be another choice, and he was desperate.

Wheeljack hesitated, hating the notion of letting Starscream touch Sunstreaker. As much as he hated the Autobot at that moment for causing all of this, his instincts were telling him that such a violation was undeserved, even for him. Wheeljack was loathed to admit that the Autobot didn't deserve to die, not like this, but he was out of options and completely out of his depth. He wasn't Ratchet, and he had no idea what to do. Taking a heavy intake of air, he closed his optics, and let the words he knew he was going to regret spill forth.

"Alright! But do it now!"

"Are you fraggin' nuts!?" Sideswipe bellowed, voice cracking as he pushed Bumblebee off of him. Wheeljack held his hand out, optics narrowed in warning.

"We have no other choice!" Wheeljack said roughly, pointing at Sunstreaker as he stepped back to allow Starscream room.

The Decepticon knelt down beside the prone Sunstreaker and leaned forward, the dim pulse of his failing spark shining off the Decepticon's face and reflecting like pools of light against red optics. Wheeljack shuddered, seeing the Decepticon face so close to an open Autobot spark. It felt so perverse.

Starscream raised his right hand, slowly, his fingers twitching eagerly as he readied himself with a light smirk. For one moment Wheeljack's processor was reeling with panic, thinking he'd just made a massive mistake and wasn't going to have the time to stop it. All at once Starscream slipped his hand into Sunstreaker's chest, a determined expression on his face as his hand disappeared within. Wheeljack's gut heaved at the sight, and he heard the humans gasp in terrified surprise as their collective breaths were held.

There was a tense moment, and Wheeljack was seconds away from yanking Starscream away, when the Decepticon's optics lit up, and he retracted his hand. He held it aloft, revealing a small, glinting piece of metal, coated in a thin layer of energon.

Sunstreaker's optics suddenly surged as he roused from stasis, the spark in his chest bursting to life with a dramatic flare. He let out a large expulsion of vented air, like releasing a breath that had been held, as his system functions came back online. The Autobot struggled to move, limbs at first slow to respond as the motor pathways reconnected with neural commands but it took only seconds.

"W-what?" Sunstreaker was looking around, confused and unfocused as he slowly regained awareness of what was around him. When his bleary gaze locked on Starscream above him his expression turned to ice, and he immediately tried to force himself up, pushing the Decepticon with a weak snarl.

"_That's_ the thanks I get?!" Starscream grunted, drawing away with a high-pitched whine. "I just saved your _life_, Autobot." He stepped back despite his accusations, not wanting to be in range of Sunstreaker's fist as the Autobot weakly tried to make a grab for him. He was pushed further aside as Sideswipe rushed past him, throwing himself on Sunstreaker with optics alight.

"We almost lost you...again." Sideswipe said breathlessly, venting air heavily as he dropped down to his knees next to Sunstreaker, who had managed to lift himself onto his elbow joints. The yellow Autobot was looking around the group intently, expression one of pained surprise and confusion. His gaze stopped on Starscream, still holding the thin piece of metal aloft in his hand, and this drew Wheeljack's attention as he stepped toward the Decepticon.

"I take it that chip acted as some kind of destabilizer?" Wheeljack queried, scientific interest momentarily taking hold as he reached for it. The Decepticon let it go willingly, smiling coyly.

"That's one of its many functions, yes. It's a rather fun little tool. One I've used myself actually, a great many times..." Starscream let the words hang in the air for a moment, the insinuations beneath them not lost on any of them.

"I'd rather not know about that," Wheeljack mumbled, disgusted as he turned it over in his hands. It was still coated in quickly drying energon from Sunstreaker's chest, shining a dim pink with a faint tinge of a corrupted yellow. That was not natural, and whatever this was, it was more than just a simple thorn designed to annoy. It was minute circuitry and manufactured components, designed to corrode and poison, and it looked like it did so by affecting the energon that passed through the spark assembly. At least, that was what Wheeljack could theorize with just a cursory inspection, but he'd have to do a more thorough analysis with Ratchet later.

Turning to look at Sunstreaker, the Autobot was not likely able to discern Wheeljack's expression behind his battle mask. He was glad Sunstreaker wasn't dead—he was an Autobot—but a lingering distrust and a still-burning resentment killed any joy he might normally have gotten for saving another Autobot's life.

"Welcome back, sunshine." Wheeljack groused dourly.

"Please don't call me that," Sunstreaker groaned. "What did you do?"

"Not much, actually. I just let Starscream have a poke around in your insides and remove a rather nasty bug you had in your system." Wheeljack knelt down, holding the small piece of metal in his hands forward for Sunstreaker to see. "You had this implanted into your chest. It was messing with your spark functions. Damn nearly killed you too."

Sunstreaker's optics paled, and he grimaced. "You let Starscream poke around inside my chest?" He looked horrified and angry, and he was suddenly pawing at his own chest looking distraught with his spark chamber open and vulnerable. Sideswipe paid no attention to his brother's attempts to close the plates of his chest, too absorbed in looking at Starscream with murder in his optics like he was ready to pounce.

"Uh..." Starscream muttered nervously. "Does it need to be restated, clarified or otherwise paraphrased that I just saved your miserable brother's life?"

"Does it need to be restated, clarified or otherwise paraphrased that I _still don't trust you_?"

"Yeah, well that makes two of us." Sunstreaker coughed weakly, laying back against his brother for support. Wheeljack looked between them furtively, pocketing the small Decepticon chip away into a storage compartment for study later. Having knowledge of such a device's capabilities, and how to detect it was invaluable.

"I'm not a monster, you know..." Starscream purred. "You and I...we merely do not share the same political perspectives."

"You're a murderer," Sideswipe muttered, trying to distract himself with Sunstreaker, who was now unwillingly allowing Wheeljack to continue stabilizing him. "You have no regard for innocent life, and your nearly killed Al—"

"_Sideswipe_," Bumblebee interrupted, finally making his presence known amongst the squabbling with his apt timing. "Let it go for now. We need to get out of here, before they come back." His interjection hadn't just been a coincidence, because Wheeljack knew what Sideswipe had been about to say regardless. The Autobot scout probably intended to stop Wheeljack from turning and pummeling the Decepticon right there, which would have only been a waste of time. Instead, he concluded that he was in agreement with Bumblebee.

"We can't risk moving Sunstreaker right now. It's a damn Primus-willed miracle you're alive." Wheeljack shook his head, feeling rattled, but otherwise focused. He looked at Sunstreaker trying to make his face as neutral as possible; not a difficult task, considering he only had to make sure his optics were convincing

"But they're going to come back... we gotta—" Sunstreaker protested, trying to get up and failing.

"We'll keep watch overnight. There's plenty of cover, and places for Sari and Allison to sleep. But I need to make sure you're at least strong enough to stand up and run if necessary, if you're to get out of here alive, and for that I need you to be still. This is going to take some time."

"How much time do we have?" Allison's voice finally spoke up, and Wheeljack had nearly forgotten that the two humans had been standing there. Allison looked pale and frightened as her gaze wandered between the twins and himself, brow furrowed in worry, and Wheeljack knew that whatever was on her mind had not changed. Sari was holding onto her arm with uncertainty, but she was looking up at Bumblebee as if for direction.

"I don't know, Allison..." Wheeljack said, looking at her sadly, pangs of sympathetic grief in his own spark at the realization that he couldn't focus on her just yet. He needed to know what was wrong; she'd finally shown him that she was in some kind of mental pain but they'd been interrupted. It would have to wait.

Allison nodded to him. He knew she probably had a great deal on her mind, but if she was willing to put on a brave face and get back to more pressing matters, than so was he. When Allison turned around to lead Sari away from the group Wheeljack resigned himself to turn back to Sunstreaker.

"Alright. Time to get back to work."


	29. An Interlude

**AN: Pulled the reigns back a bit and back to a more normal-length chapter. Enjoy!  
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><p>After some initial struggle, Sunstreaker finally complied with Wheeljack's demands and put himself into self-induced stasis to keep fidgeting to a minimum. The Autobot engineer was talented, but Allison knew he was no medic on Ratchet's level. Even the slightest slip could end up being disastrous for Sunstreaker. Besides, Wheeljack was used to inventing things, which involved mistake after mistake until something worked. There was a <em>process. <em>That methodology would only get Sunstreaker killed. Possibly everyone around him, too.

To further minimize the risk of distraction or catastrophic physical harm, Wheeljack ordered Sideswipe on first-patrol, who had kicked up a fantastic fuss to marvel any three year old Allison had ever come into contact with. He could be heard all the way out to the perimeter of the abandoned town, and it was a small miracle the Decepticons didn't hear him all the way from their base.

The process was agonizingly slow, and Wheeljack was working with what little tools he had on his own person. Allison had taken a queue from Wheeljack's frustrated but intensely focused eyes and decided it was best to remove herself and Sari out of the way. Putting on an encouraging face, she'd pulled the younger girl aside to try and distract her with a little bit of exploring. Allison needed to get her own mind off of things anyway, and she knew that given her current stance with Wheeljack at the moment her presence was only going to be a hindrance.

Bumblebee had joined them, likely needing something else to do, or just wanting to play chaperone to make sure they stayed out of trouble. The hollowed out, rotting shells of what had once been a settlement posed their own dangers, in further decay and disrepair from years of the elements and the ever encroaching growth of the forest around them. It was almost peaceful in a way, and it was likely that Bumblebee had needed the quiet just as much as the two humans did.

_Always the human babysitter_, Allison thought fondly, and while she didn't mind the Autobot's company, she had to wonder if he did it purely out of enjoyment, or if that was the task he'd been at one time relegated to only for it to become routine. He seemed to involve himself with sincere interest in what they were doing, so Allison wasn't about to stop him. After all, he _had_ pulled her from the edge of what would have likely been a grisly death at the hands of Knock Out. Right now Allison was feeling something of a post-traumatic attachment to Bumblebee that she was having a hard time making sense of, so she kept it to herself and tried her best at keeping up with Sari and Bumblebee's small-talk as they wandered.

With her already troubled thoughts after her interrupted conversation with Wheeljack, she was finding it hard to spark up much conversation at all, much less even face Sideswipe after everything that had happened. Sideswipe had his own things to worry about, and something about the fact that his own brother had done everything out of resentment regarding their friendly encounters kept her at bay. It could have been misplaced shame, or embarrassment, but Allison wasn't really sure which one it was. It wasn't even her fault, but she couldn't help but feel that in some small way she was deserving of part of the blame, regardless of how irrational that was.

_Was I really about to tell him? _Allison thought distractedly as she ghosted around with Sari and Bumblebee, trying hard to appear completely attentive to what was around her. They meandered around some of the further buildings, taking interest in some of the forgotten belongings and tools that had been left behind in whatever exodus had occurred. To be fair, they looked about as distracted and worried as Allison felt, sharing in her attempts to find something else to think about other than what was really going on.

Allison thought back to the conversation she'd had with Wheeljack, her frustrations resurfacing as she remembered what Wheeljack had brought up just before they were interrupted. So he _wasn't_ as completely oblivious as she had thought, apparently more aware of what was on her mind then she had been giving him credit for. She found this to be discomforting, because it meant that there was more relevance to her worries than she was telling herself, which meant she wasn't completely making things out of nothing. The fact that they hadn't completely addressed the issue was making Allison feel incomplete, like there was a monumental task that was still waiting for resolution but she had no idea how to get there.

It now also meant that Wheeljack was aware that something was going on, and she knew he wasn't going to let it go. He would be watching her, looking for a moment to bring it up again and finish the discussion because he was that obsessive and stubborn to need to completely hash it out. Despite this, Allison knew that he probably wasn't anticipating the real crux of her worry, and that was the possible decision to leave him; to disappear and never come back. For his sake as much as it was for hers, it was probably safer that way, and that was what she had been about to blurt out when it became clear that he wasn't _quite_ getting the whole picture. She'd been about to tell him this, to break his heart, and they'd been interrupted with it left hanging in the air between them and she was going to have to decide if she was really going to finish her thought to him or not. That was what was making her feel so unsettled.

The interruption had been important; Allison wasn't vain enough to think that what was on her mind was more important than _Sunstreaker's life_, and she knew that Wheeljack was needed. This was much bigger than her, and that was part of the problem. Wheeljack would never care about that. He would insist on finding some way to make _this_, whatever it was, work regardless of the inevitable outcome and what she had to say about it. It was why Allison knew she had to make the decision for him and let him go.

There were doubts in her heart about that too, making her ache with the more selfish reality that _she didn't want to_. Wheeljack was going to be unfocused in his own way until he found a way to speak with her in private again, and it was a fact that he'd corner her somewhere, somehow, to finish their conversation. It was only a matter of time, and Allison had no idea what she was supposed to do. She had no idea if she even wanted to tell him now, as if the interruption by Bumblebee had been some sort of divine blessing. She didn't even believe in that sort of thing, but the timing couldn't have been more apt in stopping her from possibly making a huge mistake.

Or was she? She didn't want to hurt him. She really didn't want to, but it was probably hurting him more if she stayed. Allison was teetering on a precipice of complete uncertainty. She was faced with two outcomes: being used, tortured and killed by the Decepticons in an inevitable move to strike at the Autobots where they were weak, or to kill Wheeljack all on her own. She was having a hard time weighing which one was worse at the moment.

With these thoughts in her head, Allison let Bumblebee go ahead of her and Sari as they picked their way through some of the more intact buildings. She resigned to shelve her thoughts for the moment. She had to at least get Sari out of this alive, and to do that, she had to stay as clear-minded and sane as possible. Allison at least had the luxury of being through this once before, so she knew she was somewhat equipped to help the girl through this from a human level and that was what she was going to do.

They came to one building on the far edge of town whose front was completely collapsed and exposed to the outside. The entire front portion of the building had come away from the structure proper, leaving a widely strewn about pile of debris laid out in front that they had to pick over. The humans had to stay mindful of stray nails and glass, but Bumblebee was obviously not deterred by such dangers as he found his way inside. The Autobot was one of the few small enough to actually fit. The building was still intact enough to hold Bumblebee's weight—after some tentative testing on his part—without shattering, so they determined it was probably safe for them to join him.

With a large amount of curiosity, Sari and Allison looked around what remained of the building's interior. It was hard to tell what it had been, mostly stripped of belongings and much of the rest buried beneath debris, but the odd bit of furniture and small random personal effect still remained. Eventually Allison and Sari found what looked to be an old cabinet, half-buried in bricks and wooden beams. Allison carefully shoved aside some of the beams, enough to peek inside. Seeing a dusty, wooden box resting on a shelf, she reached in carefully and pulled the old relic out.

"This looks like it opens," Allison remarked, pointing at a seam that ran around the circumference of the box. She gave it a small shake, and something inside rattled.

"There's something inside," Sari noted. "A chess set, maybe?"

"Maybe," Allison nodded, setting the box down on the ground between them for further examination. They crouched around it. "This has to be over a hundred years old..." She wiped some of the dust away from the ornate lid, cringing and leaning back as a small spider made its way along the top, an unwitting passenger when they'd unearthed it. Sari poked at the box with interest.

"I used to play chess with my dad a lot..." she remarked, a pang of regret in her voice, as she stared at if for a long while. Allison felt some sympathy for her, only hearing in passing that Sari's dad was a very busy man. It was probably obvious why Sari had formed such an attachment to Bumblebee, because he was probably the only real _adult _figure she had in her life that she could count on, or at least thought she could. It wasn't Allison's place to judge, because she really didn't know the other side of the story, but it certainly helped make more sense out of why Sari was always around. "Do you want to play?!" Sari's eyes suddenly lit up, and Allison felt a pit in her stomach at this.

"I don't know how to play," Allison said with a frown, but she may as well have said nothing at all. Sari picked up the entire box, spider completely forgotten, and ran towards Bumblebee who had retreated back to the open entrance to wait for them. If it brought some life back to the young girl in their current predicament and helped her get her mind off things, it was hard for Allison to decline. The chance to focus on something challenging would probably do her some good too.

Very uncertain as to how well this was going to go, Allison followed Sari and Bumblebee back to where Wheeljack was still with Sunstreaker and Starscream. They apparently felt it was okay enough to be back around them and not be a distraction, although Allison felt some hesitation making herself an open target to Wheeljack's worry again. It probably wouldn't do good to make things any worse by completely avoiding him, so she followed.

Somehow Allison had ended up playing by herself against Bumblebee _and_ Sari (even though Bumblebee didn't know how to play chess), and after being corrected a few dozen times by the younger girl about her move choices, Allison started to vaguely understand what piece could go where. It was a long, agonizing experience, and Allison had nearly lost all of her pieces until a large dark hand snaked around her stealthily, moving one of her last remaining men into place near one of Sari's.

"Checkmate," Wheeljack said distractedly, then immediately went back to what he was doing. Allison felt her face burn as she realized what had just happened, watching Sari's face go from confusion, to something outright indignant.

"That's not fair! You're... you're like a genius, that's cheating!"

"Not _like_ a genius, I _am_ a genius," Wheeljack corrected, somewhat dismissively, but Allison thought she detected a smile in his voice. Woe befall the poor person who attempted to best a walking sentient computer at a game of logic, she knew that much was true but this apparently escaped Sari as she proceeded to have a mild fit in front of her.

Bumblebee was trying his hardest not to laugh at Sari's expense, while she worked through the stages of denial on her own. Allison couldn't help but feel somewhat complicit in Wheeljack's impromptu Hail Mary, but it also helped ease her guilty conscience under the circumstances. Allison found that she was able to bring herself to turn and look at him appreciatively, even though all she got in return was a furtive sapphire glance in the middle of his divided attentions. Some part of her still soothed that it was nice to know that Wheeljack had been watching her. It reinforced a feeling of safety, even if it was only the calm before the next unavoidable storm.

She wasn't going to think about it now. Maybe she needed to sleep on it; tackle it with a clear head the next day when she wasn't so scatterbrained and likely knocked askew from hitting her head and skirting death on multiple occasions that day.

Sari was about to open her mouth, presumably finally coming up with something scathing to say to Wheeljack until Bumblebee plucked her from the ground and deposited her on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Sari. To be honest with you, this game requires a little too much sitting still for my liking." The girl's loss was completely forgotten, the attentiveness of the Autobot suddenly more appealing than winning a board game. Allison didn't think she could stomach much for than that, so Bumblebee's timing was appreciated. The whole thing had smelled of mold and stale water, so she'd been starting to get a headache anyway.

Eventually the two humans finally had to succumb to their growing fatigue, both by the events they had each endured and the arrival of the early hours of morning. They eventually settled on sleeping in a horse shed, which was filled with discarded equipment and clinking remnants of an era long gone. It was the only building that still looked to be in passable shape, and it was fairly devoid of dangerously rusted over pointy objects. It wasn't exactly the Four Seasons, and Allison was hesitant to really look around herself too closely to see what they were actually sharing the place with but they didn't have many options. Sleeping outside in the open air, with Decepticons lurking around was honestly not the appealing alternative. They didn't have much in the way of comforts, but Allison made due with rolling up her once-new jacket into a makeshift pillow for them both to sleep on.

Allison briefly thought back to the last time she'd been in a barn, in slightly less disrepair than this one, but the feeling was the same. Old, aged wood and the lingering smells of memories long-since lived, not to mention plenty of six and eight-legged occupants to keep her more than alert for a good long while. She doubted though, that this particular barn had a makeshift workshop hiding underneath. That was one of the first places where she actually spoke to Wheeljack. It had given that particular barn a special aura that this one was missing. It gave Allison the chills thinking about what had felt like so long ago.

Sari was out almost immediately, but Allison took a little while longer with these thoughts in her mind, mingling with the events of the day repeating over and over again. She kept feeling the lingering vertigo of the impact of the car accident, and the sensation of it careening out of control, the phantom memories of noise and violent movement allowing her to replay it clearly in her mind: the wisp of red that flashed in front of her vision as Knock Out brutally forced them off the road before they could even react, throwing the mangled heap of metal and human engineering to the ground below like it was nothing more than tissue. The ensuing moments had still been a foggy mess to her for the entirety of the day, but she now had the frame of mind to clearly remember what she'd seen and felt. She'd watched Fowler's agent die, killed by a Decepticon who'd been trying to get to her, and he'd chased her through the forest like an animal. Her only saving grace had been Sunstreaker, who was now fighting for his life.

And _Starscream_, somewhere outside and no longer behind bars, another source of her worry practically within arm's reach. She admitted that she hadn't thought too hard about Starscream's presence other than passing grievances, but now she wondered exactly what the Decepticon was doing. He could have been stalking around as they slept (or attempted to in her case) waiting for their guard to be down, for _all_ their guards to be down before striking. He was an opportunistic sadist, and if the possibility of doing harm to her, or to Sari presented itself she knew he wouldn't pass it up. Surely he wasn't _that _afraid of Wheeljack, but her only other option was trusting that the Autobot knew what he was doing.

So now she had Starscream, and Knock Out to worry about, and she couldn't stop her restless imagination from working through how differently either of them would kill her.

Physical weariness must have finally taken its toll on her body and mind, because at some point Allison only knew that Sari was shaking her awake.

"Allison! Allison! I need to pee!"

"W-what?" Allison mumbled, grogginess at the sudden disturbance of her restless sleep making her somewhat delirious and confused. "What's in the tree?"

"No!" Sari hissed, trying to keep her voice low as if this had to stay some kind of secret between them. "I have to go to the _bathroom_ and I don't want to go alone…"

"Where's Bumblebee?" Allison muttered, pulling herself up from the ground. Her shoulders and neck hurt from lying on the hard surface and she knew she was going to regret their choice of accommodations later. She was at least regaining her full mental capacity as she blinked the rest of the sleep out of her eyes.

"Are you _kidding_ me?! I'm not going with _him_," Sari huffed, as if this should have been obvious. "Please, please, pl—"

"Okay, okay, let's go," Allison said, brushing herself off as she reluctantly stood. "We'll make sure none of them see us, okay?" She couldn't exactly blame Sari for wanting a little privacy because she doubted she'd take Wheeljack with her on any such side-missions. She doubted it really registered with them what they were doing anyway.

Surprisingly Sari gripped Allison's hand, hugging close to her as if they were embarking on some sort of dangerous mission and they needed to remain discreet. There wasn't really any point, as it was just starting to get light out and Sideswipe and Wheeljack saw them as soon as they walked outside. It looked like they had been arguing, but whatever had been so important was completely forgotten as soon as the two girls walked close.

Sideswipe's face actually appeared to relax when he saw them, a soft, interested smile on his face which at least meant to Allison that Sunstreaker was fine. They had probably been arguing by sheer virtue that they _could_, and Sideswipe had wanted to pick a fight with the only person who seemed logical to him; that being Wheeljack. Allison tried to avert her eyes when they made contact with Wheeljack's whose expression did the opposite of the Autobot's next to him. He looked afraid, softly glowing eyes questioning, and it immediately reminded Allison that he definitely was still thinking about their interrupted conversation from earlier. Allison was in no mood to discuss it, it not being the right time anyway, and her avoidance of acknowledging Wheeljack was for naught. He was too damn obvious, so it was hard to look away from his intense eyes searching her for information.

"We're going to use the bathroom," Allison offered, as if an explanation was needed to reassure them both that the two of them weren't about to wander off. Sari hissed at her, jerking her arm towards her.

"Don't tell them that!"

"Sari, I really don't think they care…"

"That sounds fun," Sideswipe said. "Can I tag along?"

"Uh, this is kind of a girls-only thing," Allison said. "Y'know, just us two. It's sort of a human thing." Allison shrugged, hoping Sideswipe would get the hint and she wouldn't have to explain anything in detail. _Haven't they been around humans long enough?_

"Oh, I get you," Sideswipe said, clearly not understanding at all. "Well, you two have fun!"

"Don't go too far," Wheeljack said, nothing being lost on him, and the concern in his voice obvious but unnecessary. They didn't plan on trekking much farther than the tree line just to get out of view.

They walked passed a few of the remaining buildings out to the other side where the remains met the edge of the forest, belted by a clearing of tall grass. Sari let go of Allison's hand and left her there making a run to the tree line for maximum concealment.

"Don't go out there too far," Allison called after her, echoing Wheeljack's previous concern which gave Allison pause—surely she wasn't going to start sounding like him. Her voice lacked the volume of his own, and sounded too soft in the relative silence, which was shattered when Sari practically screamed back at her.

"Don't let them come over here!"

Allison didn't respond, only able to shake her head at the absurdity of it all. She took a breath and turned, a pointless gesture but it felt appropriate to face the opposite direction. Looking down at the grass around her, she busied herself with toeing at the few weeds that had found a niche within the thick, carpeted grasses, expelling the breath of air she hadn't even realized she'd been holding.

After a few moments, a snap behind Allison alerted her to Sari's return, so she turned to greet her—

Only to turn and come face-to-face with not Sari, but Starscream.

The sudden, bubbling shock that rose up from the depths of her awareness caused Allison to jump with a start, gasping as she fumbled a wobbling step backwards. It was an instinctive action, her immediate fight-or-flight response encompassing her vision with a red fog as she became acutely aware of the fact that Starscream was near eye-level with her. Oddly enough, her fight response won out and she remained rooted to where she stood.

Staring a Decepticon down was not an easy thing to endure. Especially one such as the imposing figure that stood before her knelt in a near crouch, with wings poised at an angle that suggested nothing short of a heightened alertness. Starscream only looked mildly interested, possibly wondering how far he could take things as he retained his just-slightly-higher stance above her that gave him an intimidating edge. His sharply angular face hovered a mere foot from her own, but his eyes still burned her. They were searing red globes that she could swear were able to see past her forced front of defiance, a lop-sided smile edging across his face as he seemed to come to a conclusion in his head.

"Out for a midnight stroll, milady?" Allison internally winced, his improper use of an endearment nothing short of mocking, and it made her skin itch. She said nothing in response, trying to keep her face from breaking into the fear she was truly feeling on the inside. It was possible that Starscream could even hear her heart beating, knelt so close to her.

"What does it matter to you? Looking to join me?" Allison didn't want to involve Sari, and hoped that the girl would see Starscream before making herself known and stay clear away. A few minutes had already passed and Sari was probably going to show up any second now. She didn't really know how brave the Decepticon was feeling and wasn't in the mood to test him. "Shouldn't you be in a cage right now?"

"Oh clever, clever, but no. No cage can hold me as you should be aware," Starscream sneered, his tone lofty. It never stopped surprising Allison just how stubborn the Decepticon was; it didn't matter how humiliated he was or how many times he was beaten, he would always come back with the same indignant sense of self-righteousness. He always thought he was one step ahead of everyone.

"Except for that cage the Autobots had you in, right? As I recall Wheeljack had to break you out of that one." Allison tried to sound unimpressed, shifting on her feet to try to draw some distance between herself and Starscream which surprisingly went unnoticed. "So obviously you're not _that_ good."

Starscream drew back a bit as if his nose had just been stung, expression suddenly affronted as his eyes rolled back in her direction.

"Hardly. I would have escaped..._eventually_. I was merely gathering information." The Decepticon's voice rumbled, but Allison heard an edge in it that told her she had gotten to his ego. She knew she probably shouldn't test him too much, not knowing how angry she could possibly make him before his tiny mind snapped. "It was only a matter of time. Did you really think the Autobots would have been able to keep a constant eye on you and your little juvenile friend?"

"Are you threatening me? Looks to me like you've got a pretty tight leash on you." Allison wasn't sure where her nerve was coming from, but the words were pouring out of her mouth in an adrenaline-fueled high. Perhaps it was everything she had witnessed, and everything she had experienced that day culminating into a giant mass of carelessness, or _the illusion_ of not caring. Her state of mind felt molded into a desensitized state of indifference that was downright irresponsible, and wherever it was coming from, Allison knew it scared her. Thinking of aloof, naivety drew her mind back to Sari, and she found herself quickly glancing behind Starscream to see if the girl was visible. It looked like Sari was wisely staying out of sight. There was no way she could have missed Starscream's gloating presence.

Starscream turned his head to look in the direction Allison had glanced. "Expecting company?" He sounded guarded. His voice dipped to the low octave that Allison recognized as the sign that the Decepticon was quickly approaching an offensive stance, or a state of readiness that might mean a messy end was approaching. A human did not want to put a Decepticon on the offensive. Especially with Sari around Allison knew she had to pull the reigns back a little bit and stop her tongue.

"No," Allison said. She thought quickly, trying to get his attention without blurting something that would set Starscream off. The thought of him playing mental games with Sari was terrible enough, and physical harm was unspeakable. She had to keep his attention on her. "Did Knock Out really put something inside of Sunstreaker?"

"_Eeugh_. That monster is always putting _something _inside of _someone_," Starscream grimaced with a distasteful growl, rolling his eyes. "Personally I find it a grotesque personality trait." His grimace turned into a sneer. Allison couldn't help but wince, wondering if Starscream had intentionally been vague in such a profane description but she didn't really want to entertain the imagery any further. "Though you can't argue with results he gets from his...methods. Who knows..." He bent down, his face zooming in close to Allison's like some kind of surreal lens. "Perhaps during your time together, he took the time to get acquainted with _your_ insides, too?"

"You're disgusting." Allison found her composure finally break, this possibility not occurring to her before. _I feel fine_ she thought to herself in a panic, mentally running a diagnostic check on each part of her body for any possible signs of incision or _tampering_ but she didn't feel anything. _Surely I would have felt something different_.

It didn't matter. The seed had been planted, and Starscream latched onto it like a leech, it having it's apparently desired effect on her and he could see right through her attempts to keep her face passive. His smile grew wider, and she thought for a moment he had drawn closer.

"Tell me, Allison," Starscream said, unhelpfully. "Were you ever unconscious at any point of your... incarceration?"

"No," she ground out, but she knew she was lying. She didn't know to whose benefit she was lying for, but she knew for a fact that she'd been knocked unconscious before she'd been taken. She just didn't know for how long. All she remembered was being incapacitated by some kind of drug, then overloaded with some form of light stimulation before waking up in a cell with Sunstreaker. Time had definitely been lost in between that last event and the one immediately before it but she didn't know how much. She wasn't going to give Starscream the satisfaction of knowing this however, and she wasn't going to play his mind games.

"Are you absolutely sure?" Starscream asked. "Maybe you should have yourself examined. If only there was an experienced physician around capable of using a scalpel. Of course, I'm a bit of an expert in cutting things open myself. I would be more than happy to—"

"To what, Starscream?" An angry voice behind him caused Starscream to reel back in fright, his face startled, and the sudden upward motion of his mass blasting air in Allison's face as she instinctively jumped to avoid collision. She turned, finally letting her reinforced composure break a little as she hastily stepped further away from the Decepticon, out of his reach should he get desperate and in need of a human shield. Sideswipe was stalking towards them with murder in his eyes, with Sari in tow trotting along beside him. So Sari _had _seen the Decepticon and had gotten the others. Smart on her, but she doubted it had taken much persuasion as Sideswipe was probably looking for any excuse at all to punch his fist through the Decepticon's face.

"What!? Nothing! I-I was just...out for a stroll. _By myself_. And she and I-" Starscream's sudden shift into panic was frightening on its own, because he was now reeling back on his own two feet, pointing down at her as if to shift the focus off of himself and towards Allison's veiled calm. Truthfully Allison wasn't really sure how to react.

"Just happened to bump into each other?" Sideswipe growled, reaching out and grabbing the Decepticon by the chest as he attempted to make a mad dash for freedom. Starscream made a restrained whimpering noise as he practically buckled at the knees. Sideswipe kept him from going completely limp, swinging him around like a dog playing with a rag.

"Oh! You were here too?" Starscream managed in weak bits as the force of Sideswipe's aggressive handling made it hard for him to get a handle on his words. Finally the Autobot shoved him hard, and Starscream skipped away, knowing it wise to not underestimate Sideswipe's reach again. "Thank Primus. This could have been really awkward to explain. But I guess that's not a problem, so why don't we let this little indiscretion go then?" His last words were high-pitched, The extraction of a blade on Sideswipe's arm catching his attention mid-sentence.

"You're already treading on very thin circuits, Starscream. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't end your miserable life right now." Sideswipe was stalking him like a cat, Sari oddly enough still trailing behind him as if she was completely not comprehending the severity of what was happening at all. Allison tried to circle around the impending danger to snatch her, but stopped as she heard the conversation shift back towards her.

"But...but..._she_ approached _me_!" Starscream shrieked, voice a rattling snarl as he pointed at Allison. "She's smarter than you think! She wants me dead, clearly. Obviously this is some kind of sinister scheme to frame me. She _wanted_ you to catch me."

"You must be out of your damn mind," Allison groused, finally getting within arm's reach of Sari to hold her back, and she conceded control without a fight. Her plan was to lead Sari away and let Sideswipe and Starscream talk things out on their own. She knew that Sideswipe needed any sort of outlet to unleash his pent up aggression at the moment, and Starscream was a worthy target. The Decepticon seemed to be keenly aware of this too, but Allison wasn't really in the mood to show him any mercy at the moment.

They proceeded to back away, Sari huffing irritably as if wanting to linger behind and watch the two mechs duke it out, but they were stopped as they both bumped into a solid mass that had materialized behind them.

"What's all this, then?" Wheeljack cast a worried gaze down at the two humans that had bumped into his ankle, glancing up at a ready-to-pounce Sideswipe just as he was about to lunge at Starscream. "Ah, _Pit_," he grumbled with a shrug as he reluctantly advanced towards them to intervene, but didn't seem as concerned as Allison thought he should be. After all, Starscream had intentionally sought _her_ out.

"Weren't you supposed to be watching him?" Allison huffed, pulling Sari simultaneously underneath Wheeljack's gait as he stopped mid-stride to look back at her. She wasn't even going to bring up the seeds that Starscream had planted in her head, prominently the idea that Knock Out had done things to her while she'd been unconscious. She knew that being angry at Wheeljack was probably a bit harsh, but after everything they'd discussed and everything that had been going through her mind, topped off with the possibility that she now had a ticking time-bomb in her body somewhere, it just felt like the last straw.

Wheeljack stopped and turned as if to come after her, a sudden change in his eyes that made it clear that he knew her patience had finally vaporized. Sari had gone oddly still, probably understanding what was going on and finding it appropriate not to chime in, but she pulled away from Allison to make a hasty retreat from the situation. Allison knew she had to follow her, walking away intentionally out of reach as Wheeljack made a sudden bid to reach for her. He had always been faster than he looked, but not fast enough as he emitted a startled chirp when she raised her hands at him in a silent attempt to tell him she was currently off-limits. At that moment she needed giant robots to stop manhandling her. After being roughed up and thrown around by the Decepticons, even the reassuring, gentle touches of Wheeljack felt like too much to deal with.

She gave Wheeljack a concentrated glare, and he seemed to understand, giving her a return nod of his head. It was clear he understood that she needed to get away from the events happening around them. Allison smiled a little, tried to, her silent way of saying thank you, and hurried after Sari. What was happening now could work itself out without her.


End file.
